Ranma Ascension Special Edition
by Michael The-Zorch Haney
Summary: The Nekoken drove Ranma to the brink of total madness, but a beautiful vision saved him and thus changed his destiny forever. Rewrite of the original "Ranma Ascension".
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: "Ranma 1/2" is the copyright and registered trademark of Viz Communications, Kitty Productions, and Rumiko Takahashi. All right reserved.  
  
Ranma Ascension SE  
  
by Michael "TheZorch" Haney  
  
Notes: As you may have guessed the original "Ranma Ascension" is now dead. I ran into several problems trying to come up with an ending to the story when I finally figured out why I was having such a hard time. Actually it was a few things I discovered; one the story was progressing way too fast, two Akane was not acting the way I actually envisions with the original story, and three Ranma never showed any signs of having Urd's personality mixed with his. With that mind I decided to rewrite the whole damn thing starting with Part 1. Essentially its the same Part 1 from the original with several minor changes here and there, corrections to grammar that was needed, and additional dialog was added in a few places. The next chapters will not be anything like the original RA but I hope you like it just as much as the original version.  
  
Chapter 1: Rebirth  
  
Pain!  
So much pain!  
Cats!  
Cats everywhere!  
Claws!  
Claws tearing at me!  
Pain!  
Terror!  
I want my mommy!  
Let me out!  
Light!  
I see light!  
A girl!  
She's so pretty!  
An angel!  
She hugs me!  
She says, "Everything is going to be alright, sweet Ranma."  
  
Saotome Ranma shot up out of his futon, he was covered in sweat. He knew what had just happened, he was dreaming about the Nekoken again. Yet, every time he did he dreamed about, her. She was beautiful, normally the images of dreams would fade from the martial artist's mind after he awoke from his dreams, but the face of this girl was still there as fresh as if he's seen her just that same day. She was beautiful beyond words, not overtly sexy like Shampoo, nor possessing the cute attributes of Ukyo. She had a beauty that spoke elegance and a sensual grace at a level none of his iinazuke could ever reach. Who was she, why was she in his dreams, and why only the dreams of the Nekoken?  
  
Ranma looked around his and his father's bedroom. It was still dark outside but the digital clock on the floor next to his futon showed it was only an hour before Kasumi usually woke up to start breakfast for the family. His thoughts went out to Kasumi then, she worked so hard for her family, and him and his pop. They were pretty much the freeloaders of the Tendo home, and Ranma really didn't like the idea of putting such a burden on the family like that. It wasn't because of Akane, hell no, it was because of all the girls Kasumi was the one Ranma really respected. She was like the mother he never had growing up, yeah she is really pretty, but he couldn't bring himself to think of her in a romantic sort of way. She was something pretty special, totally unlike her sisters. She didn't abuse him like Akane did, and she didn't exploit him like Nabiki did.  
  
With that in mind Ranma got up and decided to go downstairs. He really didn't feel like going back to sleep, where he'd likely dream about the Nekoken again. Grabbing a fresh set of clothes he headed for the bathroom downstairs. He saw the light in the kitchen and heard the sound of pots and pans being moved about. Before heading to the bath right away he went to the kitchen door. Kasumi, dressed in her usual blue pokkadotted dress and apron was softly humming a Morning Musume tune as she got out the things she needed to make breakfast. She turned around holding a large pot and spotted Ranma. It shocked her so much she dropped it, thankfully it was empty at the time.  
  
"Oh my, you startled me Ranma." she said as he picked up the pot for her.  
  
"Sorry, should have said I was here." he replied.  
  
She took it and turned back to her work at the counter. "You're up rather early."  
  
"Uh, yeah, I sorta had a bad dream and I didn't feel like going back to sleep." he admitted.  
  
"I see." she replied. She noticed the clothes he was holding and said, "I haven't had time to fill the furo yet, could you do that for me when you're done in the bathroom."  
  
"Sure." said Ranma as he turned to leave. He stopped and looked at the oldest Tendo sister. Something inside of Ranma made him say what he said next, and for the life of him he could not say why he said it only that it made him feel good when he did.  
  
"Kasumi." he turned back to her.  
  
"Yes Ranma." she looked at him.  
  
"Thank you." he told her with a smile.  
  
She looked puzzled. "For what?"  
  
"For being who you are, for taking care of us and putting up with me and my pops." he replied. "You're really special, and I think sometimes we really don't show you enough appreciation."  
  
"Why that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me." she smiled back at him.  
  
Ranma nervously scratched the back of his head and replied, "Uh, I'll go get my bath now, and I'll fill the furo for ya."  
  
"Alright, good bye Ranma." Kasumi happily returned to her work. There was a change to her though, she seemed more cheerful if that was possible for Kasumi, and her very body seemed to be radiating joy.  
  
Ranma quickly went to the bathroom, undressed in the changing room first, then went into the bath. He passed the bathroom mirror, but the reflection for a brief moment was not his own. It was a woman, not his cursed form, but a woman with long platinum blonde hair, dark skin, and unusual blue markings on her face. The girl smiled for a brief moment then vanished, her image replaced by Ranma's own reflection. During all of this his back was to the mirror so he saw none of it. The martial artist pulled out the wash stool and filled the wash tub with cold water. Bracing himself he dumped it over his head, instantly Ranma felt the tingling feeling of his transformation and looked down at the two huge mounds on "her" chest.  
  
"Geeze, I think they're getting bigger." she said holding her ample breasts in her hands. "That's all I need." That last came out in a sigh, it was bad enough he had this curse, and with freaks like Kuno Tatawaki and Happosai around being a girl was hazardous. Being a girl with massive boobs around Happosai was especially dangerous, and in female form Ranma was bigger than Shampoo. Ok, he had to admit he was also prettier than most of the girls in Nerima, and some of the girls at Furinken High were actually jealous of her at the same times. Akane was one of them, Ranma knew full well it was her female body that made her so mad at him sometimes. Akane was very self-conscious about her figure, and her breast size. It also didn't help that he belittled her small attributes a lot too. Wait a minute, where the hell did that come from? Ranma shook "her" head, must be because I woke up too early, yeah, that's it.  
  
After a good scrub and another good douse of cold water Ranma went to the furo and ran the warm water. She waited until the large tub was filled to the right height, turned off the water, and climbed in. She felt the tingling of the transformation and instantly grew taller. Ranma sighed, happy to be back in male form again and just relaxed for a while. Most westerners could not handle the high temperatures Japanese like their water to be for their bathes. The Japanese were a people who believed in being clean, and bathing every morning was something of a regular ritual.  
  
With his bath over Ranma drained the furo and filled it back up with fresh water for the next person. He dried off in the changing room and slipped into his fresh change of clothes. It was his usual red Chinese tunic, a pair of boxer shorts, a tank top type under shirt, and his black drawstring pants. As he opened the door to leave Akane was there about to come in.  
  
"At least you're dressed this time." she said then passed him quickly and vanished into the changing room.  
  
Ranna sighed thankful that she didn't clobber him this time like the two times before when they walked in on each other in the bath. He was almost to the dinner table when he heard a loud battle cry. Ranma crouched low, there was a blur of motion to his left, he dodged quickly out of the way narrowly avoiding his father's jump kick that would have connected with his head.  
  
"You're getting slow pops." Ranma teased.  
  
"I'll show who's slow boy!" Genma roared and came at his son again.  
  
Ranma leapt through the shoji door into the backyard, giving the koi pond some considerable distance. Genma was on top of him almost immediately forcing Ranma on the defensive and using every blocking technique he had in his arsenal. Nabiki came shambling down the stairs to the dinning room and looked out at the two martial artists.  
  
"Every single morning, can't they give it a rest for once, I'd like to sleep in a little just one day." she yawned.  
  
Akane emerged from the bathroom all bathed and dressed in her school uniform ready for another insane day at Furinken High. She looked out at her iinazuke and her so called future father-in-law going at it full force. She sat down next to Nabiki who was nursing a cup of steaming tea trying to wake herself up.  
  
"They woke you up again, eh?" Akane asked.  
  
"Every morning." Nabiki replied with a yawn.  
  
"Its good the boy stays fit, one day he will be in charge of the dojo and a good master of a dojo must be strong in body and in mind." Tendo Soun commented from the other end of the table while his face was buried in a newspaper.  
  
"What does that make you?" Akane asked sarcastically.  
  
"YYYYAAAAAHHHH!" came a scream from outside. Akane gave a deep sigh, she didn't have to look to see who it was. As was her regular morning ritual she went to the kitchen, grabbed the kettle Kasumi always set aside for Ranma and his father went out on the back porch. Sure enough, she watched as the petite, big breasted red head climbed out of the koi pond sputtering and tossing out enough curses to make a sailor blush.  
  
"Dammit pops, now I gotta go change clothes again!" Ranma yelled at her father.  
  
"Every single morning, every single morning you're falling into that pond." Akane said to her. "Its really pathetic."  
  
"Who asked you?" Ranma snarled.  
  
She reached out for the kettle in Akane's hand but the girl pulled it back and smirked. "Maybe I should make you go to school this way, I'm sure Kuno would love to see his pig tailed girl today." she laughed.  
  
"That ain't funny, you uncute tomboy." Ranma hissed.  
  
Akane tossed him the kettle. "I thought it was hilarious." Ranma caught it by the handle expertly then poured its contents over her head. Instantly he was back to normal but still soaking wet.  
  
"Now, now, Akane you know how sensitive Ranma is about his condition." Kasumi said waving a finger at her youngest sister. She turned to Ranma and handed him a large bath towel.  
  
"Thanks Kasumi." Ranma took the towel and started drying his hair and patting down his clothes.  
  
"Breakfast is nearly done, why don't you go and change your clothes." Kasumi added as she went back to the kitchen. "I'll have your food on the table by the time you come back down, alright."  
  
Akane wasn't sure what was happening here but she felt as if something was up. She put her hands on her hips as she watched Ranma head towards the stairs. She went to the kitchen. "Why are you suddenly being so nice to Ranma, sis?" she asked.  
  
Most of the Tendo family considered Kasumi to be pretty unobservant or even a little out of touch with reality. Nothing seemed to phase her at all, well almost nothing like the incident when Akane's hair got cut many months ago, but all in all she seemed rather clueless about things that happened around the house. From time to time she would surprise her family, from time to time her real intelligent would shine through and they'd see the real Kasumi. In that moment it was Akane's turn to witness her sister's true nature. It was Kasumi's reply that shocked Akane to her core.  
  
"Well Akane, nobody else will."  
  
Akane kept silent on her way to school. As was his customary ritual, Ranma was up on the fence. Kasumi's words ran through Akane's mind over and over again. Kasumi was nice to everyone in the house, even Ranma, but something about what Kasumi did and said that morning seemed different for odd reason. The baka had better not have tried anything with my sister! It was easy for her believe Kasumi was being nice because of something Ranma did. He was always grabbing onto those other girls, wasn't he? What did she mean by "nobody else will"? She decided to have a talk with Kasumi after school to find out what was up. If Ranma had tried something with her she wanted to know about it so she could pummel him for it.  
  
Both Akane and Ranma were very thankful that Kuno was absent from school that day. He was laid up with the flu and under the care of Dr. Tofu. Without the annoying poetry spouting buffoon around the two were actually on time to homeroom for once. Lunch time could not have come sooner for Saotome Ranma, his stomach growled angrily as he sat down under his favorite tree in the school yard and opened up the lunch bag Kasumi made for him that morning. In the corner of his eye he spotted movement. Kuonji Ukyo was approaching, she wore her usual boy's uniform, bandoleer, and her trademark oversized Baker's Peel was slung over her back.  
  
"Hey Ranchan." she greeted him.  
  
"Hi Ucchan." he waved.  
  
The Okonomiyaki chief set about assembling her portable grill and in seconds was grilling a couple of crispy okonomiyaki. "So, how has school been today?" she asked as she worked.  
  
"Dull, with Kuno out sick it been pretty boring." Ranma replied lazily.  
  
"I wondered why there wasn't a fight this morning." Ukyo shrugged and sprinkled the toppings on her two masterpieces.  
  
"Akane's been acting weird though." he added.  
  
Ukyo put one of the okonomiyaki on a napkin and handed to Ranma who gratefully took it and munched it down in record time. "Its customary to taste your food when you eat it, Ranchan." she laughed.  
  
"Its a habit, I'm always competing for food with pops at dinner time." he explained.  
  
"Geeze, some father." Ukyo scowled. She had little respect for Saotome Genma, especially after he stole her dowry and left her behind, but also because of the way he treated Ranma all the time. It was no secret that she hated the overweight panda man with a passion.  
  
"He ain't much of a dad, but he's all I got." Ranma sighed.  
  
"It could be worse, Happosai could have been your father." she joked.  
  
Ranma's face suddenly turned a bright shade of white. "That ain't funny, that's sick."  
  
"See what I mean?" she asked.  
  
"Its bad enough the old freak's the master of the Anything Goes school." Ranma replied.  
  
A loud crash resounded through the school yard. Ranma and Ukyo looked up just as Shampoo and her Bicycle of Death came flying over the school yard wall. Students sitting around the yard scrambled to get out of the way as she came down hard tearing a deep gouge in the lawn. The bike, incredibly, wasn't the least bit hurt by this and quickly the bubbly Amazon was at Ranma's side with a Nekohauten takeout box.  
  
"Nihao, Ranma, Shampoo bring you special deluxe ramen for lunch, it too, too delicious!" she cheered. She spied Ukyo and her portable grill with a scowl. "What Spatula Girl doing here?"  
  
"Making okonomiyaki for my Ranchan." she said.  
  
Shampoo stuck her nose up at that. "Food Shampoo make with own hands better than greasy bread Spatula Girl make."  
  
Ukyo stood and reached for her Baker's Peel. "What did you just call my okonomiyaki?"  
  
"Greasy bread." Shampoo happily replied.  
  
"That's what I thought." Ukyo replied, brought her weapon forward and attacked. Shampoo put the delivery box down and had her bonbori maces in her hands in less than a second. The clash of steel against steel rang across the school yard. Akane and her friend Yuka sat some distance away and looked up to see Ukyo fighting with Shampoo.  
  
"Hey, isn't that Ukyo?" Yuka pointed. "She fighting that girl from that Chinese restaurant across town."  
  
"Ranma." Akane sighed. "I'd better go see what this is about." She got up and Yuka followed her. When they reached the scene of the battle Ranma was already on his feet trying to break up the fight. Shampoo stood sticking her tongue out at Ukyo while Ranma hold her arms in a vice like grip.  
  
"Ranchan let me go so I can pound that Chinese bimbo, insulting my cooking is an insult to my honor!" Ukyo cried.  
  
Ranma tried his test to get her to settle down. "Ucchan, please, settle down."  
  
"Good idea, airen should stop stupid Spatula Girl from getting hurt." Shampoo commented.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ukyo growled and with a sudden surge of untapped strength she freed herself from Ranma and renewed her fight with Shampoo.  
  
"What's going on, why are they fighting?" Akane asked Ranma who just had a helpless look on his face.  
  
"Ucchan was making me some okonomiyaki when Shampoo showed up and insulted her cooking." he replied. It was then that he realized whom he was talking to. He could see the air around Akane suddenly ripple as her chi started to superheat the air around her body.  
  
"So, you'll eat Ukyo and Shampoo's cooking but you won't eat the lunch my sister made you!" she fumed.  
  
Ranma threw up his hands in a vain attempt to calm her. "No, I already ate what Kasumi made me!"  
  
"So you're saying it wasn't good enough!" Akane stomped towards him, her battle aura flaring into existence.  
  
"I didn't say that!" he protested.  
  
Akane reared back her leg and cried, "It sounded like it to me!" Ranma knew he should have dodged the kick, Akane certainly moved slow enough. Her foot hit him in the jaw sending him flying into the air. This had become such a regular occurrence around Furinken High that the students payed him no mind, besides they were more interested in the fight between Ukyo and Shampoo. The two martial artists stopped in mid battle as they heard the familiar sound of Ranma flying off into the wild blue yonder.  
  
"Ranchan!" Ukyo shouted.  
  
"Aiya!" Shampoo cried.  
  
"Baka." Akane sighed.  
  
The two women broke off their fight and went running after him. With great ease they cleared the school yard wall and kept running. Ranma was used to this by now, he wondered where he was going to fall this time. He hoped where it was it wasn't wet. He looked down and noticed he was starting to fall towards a construction site. There were men milling about in hard hats, and large machinery that Ranma couldn't identify. To his horror he realized he was about to fall into one of the machines. He tried his best to change his course but he was moving too fast. Only just a few meters from impact he closed his eyes and hoped for the best. Before the world around him blanked out he felt the most intense pain he had ever felt in his entire life.  
  
Akane and Nabiki walked home together. All that day neither of them had seen Ranma, Shampoo or Ukyo. He probably ran off with one of them somewhere, the pervert. Akane was still fuming some from the confrontation at lunch time. After her sister had been so nice to him he went and did that. As they approached the house Akane noticed her father and Genma waiting outside the gate. She looked at Nabiki questioningly but she just shrugged her shoulders. When they both reached the gates to the Tendo family home Akane noticed Kasumi was there too. She was standing inside the yard, her face was flushed and she had tear streaks on her face.  
  
Kasumi, crying, Kasumi's never cried since mommy died. She looked at her father, there were tear streaks on his face as well, there were even a few tears in the eyes of Ranma's father.  
  
"What's going on, why has Kasumi been crying?" she asked.  
  
Soun put his hands on his youngest daughter's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Akane, its, its Ranma."  
  
"What about that pervert?" she asked.  
  
She heard Kasumi suddenly break out in renewed sobs and this put her on sudden alert. Something major has happened. "He's in the hospital." Genma told her.  
  
"What!" Akane and Nabiki both shouted at the same time. Ranma rarely ever got sick, and any time he ever got hurt he usually recovered very quickly after a brief trip to Dr. Tofu's clinic.  
  
"H-H-H-He is, is, oh now the schools will never be joined!" Soun tried to say but his trademark shower of tears sprayed the yard.  
  
"Mr. Saotome?" Akane asked, now she was starting to get scared. She hadn't seen Ranma since she punted skyward that same day.  
  
"Akane, he's in the ICU ward." Ranma father said. "He was mauled by a machine in a construction area near the high school, they don't expect him to live through the night."  
  
"NANI!" Akane cried tears flowed from her eyes. She staggered backwards, the world around her started to swirl out of control. Images of everyone she knew appeared swirling around her as if they were caught in a whirlwind. Together they chanted, "Its all your fault! Its all your fault!"  
  
"NNOO!" she cried before collapsing to the ground.  
  
After she was revived the family went to the hospital. Ranma had been moved to special a private room in the ICU ward so that he could be with his family. Ranma didn't respond to anyone's voice, not his father's, not Akane's frantic cries, nor even Kasumi's gentle voice. As time passed it was getting very late, Akane decided to stay with Ranma so she could be with him when he died. The rest of the family returned home. Alone with Ranma's shattered body, Akane held his hand and cried. His entire stay at the Tendo dojo replayed in her mind over and over again. As she watched every incident of her hitting him, punting him into the air, and coming to all the wrong conclusions she hated herself more and more. It was never really Ranma, it was her, it was all her. She wanted to die, wanted to die right here and now at his side. It was her blind temper that killed him. A sudden desire to visit the hospital's shrine overcame her, Akane stood up, kissed Ranma's forehead and left the room.  
  
Moments passed, then suddenly a bright light flared from the television on the wall. A pair of shapely legs emerged followed by an even more shapely body. The figure was draped in a very revealing outfit with long platinum blonde hair. She dropped to the floor and looked around to make sure nobody has seen her entrance. A large mirror in the room began to shimmer and glow. A similarly elegant beauty in white robes emerged, floated into the room and alight to the floor next to the other.  
  
"Well, here we are." said Urd.  
  
"Are you certain this is what you want to do?" Belldandy asked her.  
  
"Either way I'm going to vanish, whether he lives or dies." her older sister replied. "I just didn't realize I'd have to do this so soon."  
  
"Is there no other way?" Belldandy looked at the dying young man on the bed.  
  
"No, I made this decision to do this a long time ago when he was just six years old." Urd explained. "I felt in his soul that he was meant for something great and I had to save him from his father's stupidity. It was the only way I knew that would save him then."  
  
"You do realize what this will do to both of you." said Belldandy.  
  
Urd nodded. "Yeah, father was kinda upset with me over this, but in a way I guess he was proud of me at the same time."  
  
"What you did was selfless, a bit extreme, but it was very selfless." Belldandy smiled at her sister.  
  
"I guess this means goodbye." Urd sighed.  
  
Belldandy took her sister's hand. "Not really, I may be losing a sister, but I'll be gaining a brother."  
  
Urd gave her that crocked smile that was her trademark. "Try to break this to the kid softly, you know how Skuld can get."  
  
"I will." Belldandy promised.  
  
Belldandy let go of her sister's hand and watched as Urd floated into the air and hovered above the body of the young boy. She reached out and touched the young man's face. "He's grown up to be really handsome, I can see why so many girls chase after him." With that she floated down and slowly began to merge with the body of the young boy.  
  
When it was done Belldandy wiped a tear from eyes and floated towards the room's mirror. She stopped to look back at the dying boy and said, "Goodbye sister."  
  
Akane knelled before the hospital shrine dedicated to the Goddess of Health, she clasped her hands in front of her, tears streaming down her face. Her prayers called out to the spirit of her mother. Little did she know her prayers were being heard, but by someone nobody would never have expected. Akane blamed herself for everything that went wrong with her relationship with Ranma. She let her experience with the boys at school cloud her perception of men. She was a mean spirited, spoiled brat who got mad whenever thing didn't go her way or when she wasn't the center of attention. She was just beginning to realize this, now it was too late to do anything about it.  
  
"Mother, I really messed up." she said softly. "Now the man I love is paying the ultimate price for my stupidity. Its all my fault, I shouldn't have hit him then or ever, I should have been nicer to him. Kasumi was right when she nobody else will be nice to him, because I sure wasn't. I love him so much, and now I can't tell him. I-I-I wish I could have a second chance to tell him how I feel."  
  
Akane jumped with a start as she heard a voice whisper out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time. "Wish granted."  
  
She gasped and looked around in fright. The small shrine room was completely empty of other worshipers, and even the shrine keeper wasn't around. Then she heard a sound, a dry crackling noise in front of her. She turned towards the shrine and noticed the sound was coming from one of the potted plants. One of the plants had died, its stems hung limp to the side of the pot, its leaves and flower petals had withered and turned brown. Now the stems were rising, the leaves and petals become fuller, the color was returning to the stems and flowers. Within only a few seconds the dead flowers were alive once again and full of vibrant colors.  
  
"Oh my!" Akane gasped covering her mouth with her hands and tears streamed down her face. She leapt to her feet and ran from the room. The hospital was not so crowded at night, so she had no trouble making it back to Ranma's room. Nurses from the night shift looked in her direction as she raced by at a speed they'd never seen a human being run at before. She was running so fast she left a fierce shockwave of air behind her that sent loose paper flying. She flew through the door to Ranma's room and was at his side like a shot. Akane reached out and grabbed his hand and squeezed it.  
  
"Ranma." she said softly.  
  
"Um. Can't a guy get some sleep in this place." she heard him say. Akane could not believe it as the light over the bed came on and Ranma sat up. The layers of bandages and many tubes that had covered his body were gone. He smiled at her softly, then braced himself as Akane launched at him and threw her arms around his neck.  
  
"RANMA!" she cried, tears streamed down her cheeks in a torrent now as she held him tight and vowed to never again let him go. Without any of the hesitation he had ever shown before Ranma wrapped his arms around Akane and held her. She cried into his chest releasing all the anger and resentment she ever showed towards him since he came to Nerima. Before long she felt both physically and mentally spent. Ranma scooted over in the hospital bed, and laid her down beside him. She cuddle up next to him and drifted off to sleep without saying a word. Ranma kissed her softly on the cheek before turning off the light and pulling the cover over both of them.  
  
Ranma sat in a dark place, he could see his arms, legs, and chest as if a light were shining down upon him but as he looked up he saw only the same blackness. He also couldn't feel a floor or any walls yet he was able to stand and walk. Soon he running, fast and faster, and when he realized he wasn't getting anywhere he stopped and sat down. He wasn't sure what he was sitting on since he couldn't feel a floor at all.  
  
"Hi there." came a voice.  
  
Ranma turned around a woman stepped out of the darkness, a woman who quite literally stepped out of his very dreams. It was the woman from his nightmares of the Nekoken, the angel that came to him, held him in her arms and told him everything was going to be alright. She was tall and beautiful, wearing an outfit that was rather revealing leaving very little to the imagination. Her figure reminded him very much of Shampoo's, but her skin had a dark tanned color while her hair was platinum blonde. On her face she had several curious blue markings like tattoos.  
  
"Its, its you." he said.  
  
"I'm glad you remember me Ranma." his dream angel said.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked her.  
  
"I'm you, at least now I am." she replied.  
  
"Huh?" his eyes went wide.  
  
She held her arms wide and did a spin sending her outfit flying revealing even more of her curvaceous figure. "What you see is what was once Urd, Goddess of the Past and Love." the girl said putting a little emphasis on the "L" word.  
  
"What do you mean 'was once'?" Ranma asked.  
  
She walked up to him and knelled down in front of him. "Remember the Nekoken, remember when I came to you." she said. Ranma nodded. "Your father was a real baka, I see he hasn't changed much since back then, but I'll go on. You see the instruction manual your father had was a mistranslation of the ancient texts about the training technique. The Nekoken was supposed to create a berserker, a killing machine, not some of the time and only showing up when your fear of cats reaches a certain height, but all the time."  
  
"Whoa! Time out here, you're saying I could have been caught in the Nekoken form forever!" Ranma was shocked. "So what stopped it from doing that?"  
  
"I stopped it." Urd explained. "There was only one way I knew that would have protected your mind enough, sure you'd still have the madness but it would only show when you were frighten by a cat and that fear became overwhelming, but what did happen to you is way better than the alternative."  
  
"I guess, so why are you here, and what is this about you being me?" Ranma asked her.  
  
"To save you I had to assimilate with you, but only partially so we'd be joined but still have separate minds and bodies." she replied softly. "On that day we ceased being Urd and Ranma as individuals and we became one, in a sense."  
  
"Whoa! Whoa! I don't understand!" Ranma waved his hands in front of her. "You made yourself a part of me?"  
  
"And vice versa, a part of you became a part of me." she went on. "And that is the way it has been until now."  
  
"Until now?" he asked her and wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.  
  
"Do you remember what happened to you?" she asked.  
  
Ranma had to think for a moment, he remembered the fight with Akane at school, flying through the air, and seeing the construction yard, but little else. "Only bits and pieces, something happened to me didn't it."  
  
"You were torn up pretty badly by a machine that grinds up rocks." Urd told him. "You weren't expected to live through the night."  
  
Ranma looked into her eyes with a shocked expression and said, "I'm dead."  
  
She smiled at him sheepishly and patted his cheek. "You are a bit slow aren't you Ranma."  
  
"Am I dead?" he demanded.  
  
"No." she replied. "And yes."  
  
"Its either yes or no, I don't think there is an in between unless I'm some ghost or vampire or something." he said sarcastically.  
  
Urd just laughed, "The Saotome Ranma and Urd that everyone knew is dead and gone, we are what remains. Before your body gave up its fight for life I completed the assimilation, we are both now one body and one mind."  
  
"Really?" this was starting to fascinate Ranma. He never imagined anything like this was possible. Then he asked, "What does this mean to me, as a person?"  
  
"Saotome Ranma is now a combination of your personality and mine." Urd explained. "Both of our memories are intact so you will remember everything that I know, and you will be the dominant personality so you don't have to worry about living as girl the rest of your life, but you will be comfortable with your female form for now on."  
  
"NANI?!" he gasped.  
  
She patted his cheek again. "Relax, you won't start liking guys or anything like that, you'll just be comfortable with it. It won't be embarrassing to you anymore."  
  
Ranma sighed and looked visibly relieved at that. "What about Akane?"  
  
"She's pretty torn up over all of this, she was contemplating suicide so she could die with you but me and my sister, your sister now, put a thought into her head to go pray at the hospital's shrine to get her mind off that idea." Urd replied.  
  
"She was going to kill herself!" Ranma was on his feet with a shocked expression on his face.  
  
"She loves you Ranma, and like you she has a hard time showing her true feelings." Urd gestured for him to sit back down. "That won't be a problem anymore, since this change will also make it easy for you to share your true feelings with those you care about."  
  
"I see, uh, if we're merged how is it we can talk to one another like this?" he asked.  
  
Urd gestured around at the blackness. "This is the world of your subconsciousness, the void where your dreams and nightmares take place. It is here that we can be as we once were and talk to one another."  
  
"So when we're awake we're a combination of the two of us, but when we're asleep we can be our old selves." he said.  
  
Urd patted his cheek again. "By George I think he's getting it."  
  
"Now what?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Well, among the other changes you are now like I used to be, you Ranma are a Kami." Urd told him, and Ranma's face became a mask of absolute shock. "I was a limited status second class goddesses, due to your unique situation you are a god in male form and a goddess in female form. You are immortal and virtually invulnerable, nothing short of some very powerful magic can hurt you. And it would have be some pretty potent magic too. The only thing you'd really have to watch your back for are Demons from the underworld."  
  
"I've had a run in with a couple of them." Ranma smirked at her.  
  
"You haven't seen real demons, there are some that make Happosai look like a saint." Urd laughed in reply.  
  
"Ok, so I'll have all these neat new powers, I'll be more open with my feelings, and I won't hate my female form anymore, what else?" he counted the items off on his fingers as he spoke. "And I might have to blast a few real demons from time to time."  
  
"There's a problem there." she said pursing her lips.  
  
"What sorta problem?" he asked her suddenly feeling a bit uneasy.  
  
"There can never be an open conflict between kami and demons." she told him in a very serious tone. "The damage such a battle would wreak upon the Earth would be incredible. So to deter such conflicts the Doublet System was installed into Yggdrasil."  
  
"The what?" he looked at her, she could tell he was trying very hard to understand what she was telling him.  
  
"Yggdrasil is the Tree of Power, think of it like a giant computer that controls all of reality. Well the Doublet System pairs up a kami with a demon. If one fights the other the system eradicates both of them."  
  
"Whoa." he breathed suddenly understanding the significance of what she said.  
  
"Is there anything else I should know?" he asked.  
  
"Get your so called life in order, fix that iinazuke problem you've got between Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, and Kodachi." she said urging him. "Also show that pint-sized pervert and that diminutive Amazon who's boss, pay your father back for that ten year training mission, and put an end to that senseless feud between you and Ryoga."  
  
"Sounds like a start." Ranma said already thinking of what to do.  
  
"There is one last thing, we'll be waking up soon so I gotta make this quick." Urd said as she stood up. "Find your sisters, they're in Nekomi staying at the Morrisato place."  
  
"I, I have sister?" Ranma asked with surprise.  
  
"Yes, get to know them and they'll help you get acclimated to your new life." Urd told him. "Well, we're waking up, see ya tonight." She faded into the darkness, then the darkness gave way to light. Ranma opened his eyes and looked around the hospital room. He felt a warm body laying next to him. Turning he saw Akane sleeping there cuddled up next to him, a gentle smile on her face. Without any of the fear he had before Ranma reached out and brushed a lock of hair away from her face. He never noticed before how pretty she really was, how great a figure she had. There would likely be a lot of things he probably didn't notice about her in the days, weeks, months, and maybe years ahead. A voice inside of his mind told him he should hate her, she tried to kill you, but looking at that beautiful serene face sleeping there made that all fade away.  
  
The next morning at the Tendo dojo was not a happy one. Genma did not even eat much of his breakfast, he'd pick something up in his chopsticks and take a bite, but he didn't have much of an apatite. His son had probably died sometime during the night. Nabiki sat in her room, tears streaking down her face as she put her entire collection of pictures of Ranma in his girl form through a paper shredder. She could no longer bring herself to sell them. Soun laid in his futon in his bedroom looking at the ceiling wondered how everything had all gone so wrong. In the dojo Kasumi knelled at the family shrine praying to her mother to help guide Ranma's spirit to the afterlife. The phone started ringing, after the fifth ring she got up to answer it since nobody else in the house was moving to do so. She got to the phone in the kitchen and put to her ear.  
  
"Mushi mushi." she said without much emotion.  
  
"Oh, Akane, wait, you're talking too fast I can't understand you." she went on after hearing her sister talking into the phone at a million miles per second. "Slow down. What? Come to the hospital? Oh, please slow down."  
  
"What is it?" Genma asked walking into the kitchen. "Is it Akane?"  
  
"Come to the hospital, what's that about Ranma, I can't understand you." Kasumi continued. "We're coming now, bye." She hung up the phone and gave Mr. Saotome the most bewildered expression he's ever seen on her face.  
  
"Is it about my boy?" he asked.  
  
"I honestly couldn't tell, she was talking so fast I couldn't follow what she was saying, but what I did understand is that she wants us all at the hospital right now." Kasumi explained.  
  
"I'll call a cab."  
  
When they arrived at the hospital it was in a state of total chaos. People were running about, nurses, doctors, priests, the place was a bedlam of frantic activity, and all of it was centered around the ICU unit. As soon as they arrived one of Ranma's doctors approached them. A nurse suddenly ran by yelling, "Its a miracle, a miracle!"  
  
"Mr. Saotome, Mr. Tendo, I'm glad you made it here so early, sorry for the state we're in right now but once you see why I think you'll all understand." he said.  
  
"What has happened to my son?" Genma asked the man.  
  
The doctor lead them all into Ranma's room and he said, "Ask him yourself, Mr. Saotome."  
  
"Hi pops." said Saotome Ranma, who was sitting on the edge of his bed with Akane at his side holding his hand.  
  
"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped and fainted straight away.  
  
"Kasumi!" Soun shouted and caught his eldest daughter before she hit the floor.  
  
"H-H-H-H-How?" Genma stammered as he walked towards his son. Indeed Ranma looked very much alive and unharmed, the day before he'd been a terrible mess, but now it was as if that had never happened. The young man had a smile on his face and his eyes sparkled with health and vitality. It took the Saotome patriarch a few moment before he noticed something different about his son. On his face were a series of triangular shaped blue markings that looked almost like tattoos of some form. The man was too elated at seeing his only child alive and well to worry about something as trivial as face paint.  
  
"I hope I didn't worry anybody." Ranma said to everyone.  
  
"Ranma, when we saw you yesterday you were mangled beyond recognition." Nabiki stepped around Genma and took a close look at the young man.  
  
"Shampoo and Ukyo said it took four hours for the rescue crews to get you out of that machine you were in." Genma added.  
  
Ranma just smiled knowingly at his father. "Its not the right time to explain what has happened and why I'm alive, but I can tell you that this is all real."  
  
"That nurse was right, it is a miracle." Tendo Soun said as he looked at Ranma.  
  
Ranma simply looked at him and said, "You have no idea."  
  
To be continued...  
  
Chapter 2: The New Ranma  
  
Ranma comes home from the hospital and his other suitors come over to celebrate his recovery. Shampoo discovers she can't manipulate him anymore like she could before, and Happosai gets a rude awakening. 


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: "Ranma 1/2" is the copyright and registered trademark of Viz Communications, Kitty Productions, and Rumiko Takahashi. All right reserved.

oOOOo

Ranma Ascension SE

by Michael "TheZorch" Haney

oOOOo

Notes: Sorry for the long delay in getting this out but I've been rather busy. I'm looking for a job here around D.C. Anyway, I hope you like the better direction the story is going this time around. I've put more of Urd in Ranma this time around, so things will be quite interesting. Please visit my website and join the Zorch Central Blog-O-Rama, a site dedicated to sharing fan fiction ideas, and listen to the Zorch Central Podcast.

oOOOo

Chapter 2: The New Ranma

Akane clung to Ranma's arm as if her life depended on it. He had said very little to her at all during the cab ride back to the Tendo dojo. The fathers almost started a riot when they demanded that Ranma be allowed to return home. The doctors were reluctant to let the pigtailed boy leave, but since he appeared to be perfectly well they had no further reason to keep him. Akane noticed a few things about Ranma that didn't seem normal. For one he didn't trying to shy away from her when she latched onto his arm. His normal tendency to squirm away from girls appeared to be gone. His demeanor appeared different, she really couldn't pin that one down yet until she watched him a bit longer. The pigtailed boy seemed more focused to his surroundings. He literally radiated an air of power around him that hadn't been there before.

They finally got home and Nabiki paid the cab driver. To her it was money well spent just to have Ranma back. She was glad to have him back, not just because of her sister, but this incident also made her realize how much the boy meant to her as well. She didn't love him exactly but some did feel something towards him which she decided was best kept unspoken. There was also the fact that she was going to make a killing off of this news. By now Shampoo and Ukyo have spread all over school that Akane killed Ranma. If school wasn't already a circus it was sure going to be one now.

The eldest Tendo sister beamed with joy that Ranma was alive and well. She was ecstatic over his miraculous recovery. Most of all she was happy for Akane whom she knew would have never forgiven herself if he had actually died. She noticed a change in Akane. She wasn't sure yet, but her little sister seemed different. Perhaps, she hoped beyond hope, that this event changed her little sister and made her realize just how dangerous her temper was. Maybe, finally, she and Ranma can at last become closer. Everyone knew they loved each other, but they just couldn't bring themselves to show it.

The fathers took Ranma's miraculous recovery as a sign from Kami-sama that the he and Akane were meant to be. Typical thinking for these two baka. They immediately started making plans for a wedding over a bottle of sake. It didn't take long for the two to drink themselves into a stupor and finally conk out. Kasumi looked at them on the dinning room floor snoring up a storm, and sighed. She went to the closet and drew out a pair of pillows and blankets for them.

Little did anyone at the Tendo household know but word of Ranma's miracle recovery was starting to spread around town. Eventually it reached the Furinken financial district and spread from there like wild fire. Before long two young women in mourning heard murmurs of an impossible rumor. Like two crusaders out on a holy cause they left together and started asking questions. Usually this involved forcing people to talk with a pair of bonbori and a giant spatula in their faces. Not quite sure if the story was true or not the two women decided to go to the one place where they would get real answers.

oOOOo

Saotome Ranma went straight to the dojo and started running through a few warm up kata. Akane followed him wearing her white karate ki. She was torn between sitting and watching the almost ballet like moves of her iinazuke or smashing through a few thousand yen worth of cinder blocks. Akane had watched Ranma do these drills a thousand times before, but there was something different about them now. They were more fluid than before, like all of a sudden he'd somehow become one hundred times more graceful in the art than before. There were times when his body almost seemed to blur he moved so fast yet at the same time those super-fast movements were done with swan-like grace. His face was a mask of absolute focus yet appeared serene and free of worry or lack of concentration. Finally he stopped, even that was done gracefully like a dance and he turned to regard her with those bright blue eyes.

"Wanna spar?" he asked her.

Akane's heart leapt into her throat. 'Did he just ask me to spar?' she gasped to herself.

"Well?" he said and fell into a basic beginner's stance.

"H-H-Hai," she managed to finally get out and tried to match his stance. Ranma was the first to move, she could tell he was holding back because she'd seen him move a lot faster. A part of her got angry; she thought he was holding back because he didn't respect her as a martial artist. It was that part of her she wanted to desperately get rid of but old habits die hard. Her sudden surge of anger fizzled out the instant she saw the fist headed towards her like a speeding truck. He might not be moving at full speed but she knew him well enough to know that she did not want that fist to connect. It was the fact that he was throwing a punch, at her, that threw her off balance for only a second. Despite this Akane managed to dodge the blow, barely, and came around in an attempt to punch him in the side. Her blows were typically slower but with a lot of power. Ranma, even moving at half speed, was able to flex his body in just the right way to avoid what would have been a painful impact. They separated, ran towards opposite ends of the dojo and fell into a more advanced fighting stance.

Akane decided to take the initiative this time. Since to it looked like Ranma was actually going to fight this time instead of just dodging Akane chose not to hold back. She knew she wouldn't stand a chance against Ranma otherwise. She ran at him yelling a battle cry and brought her fist up at his face. The pigtailed martial artist leaned to the side avoiding the blow, then swiveled around on the ball of his left foot to deliver an open palm smash to the girl's exposed flank. Akane felt like she'd been broadsided by a wrecking ball. Her entire leg went numb for a few seconds after the pain set in and she stumbled to the floor. She recovered control of her leg just in time to avoid Ranma's follow up attack. He was flying through the air with a spinning double-foot kick that would have driven her into the floor. She rolled away and got back onto her feet, but winced at the pain in her leg. She was tough, a year of dealing with Kuno and the Hentai Horde saw to that, but her leg was smarting from that impact. Very likely she'd have a nasty bruise for several days on her calf.

"Hiya!" she cried, launching herself into a rather impressive flying kick. Ranma tucked and rolled out of the way snapping back to his feet a second later. Akane didn't let up for one second; she knew that if she did it was over. For what seemed like forever they traded blow after blow, both fighters managed to block each other's fists at the last split-second. Finally, Akane decided to take the boy's head off with a spinning round house kick. Ranma simply ducked under it and counterattacked at the same time. He brought up his hands, palms out towards Akane's solar plexus. She saw the attack coming and knew there was no way to dodge it. She was still coming out of her failed round house kick, she couldn't dodge while under its momentum, then the pigtailed boy sprang up from his crouched position with his hands together, palms out, in a classic double tiger's paw strike. The impact was like getting hit by a locomotive moving at Mach one. Akane's world filled with white-hot pain, she didn't notice the sudden acceleration as she flew across the room, and barely registered it when she slammed against the far wall. She hung there against it for a second before sliding to the floor.

Neither of them had heard the rice paper door open during that moment nor the sharp gasps as two young women watched Akane fly across the dojo. Ukyo and Shampoo were too stunned to do or say anything. Ranma was still in his post-attack position with is hands out as Akane slumped to the floor. For what seemed like forever she stayed there and slowly the young Tendo started to move. At first she got her legs underneath her and just sat there while holding her head. Slowly she stood on unsteady legs, one hand on the wall to keep her steady and other still on her head. The two onlookers slowly came out of their shock and reached for their weapons. There was no telling what the girl might do with her hair trigger temper. Akane looked up with pain filled eyes at Ranma. Them, Ukyo and Shampoo did a face falter to end all face falters when the young Tendo's eyes filled with hearts and stars.

"OH THANK YOU, RANMA! OH THANK YOU!" she cried running towards Ranma with her arms out stretched.

"RANCHAN!" "AIREN!" The cry brought Akane out of her happy place. Ranma was finally taking her seriously as a fighter. She hurt like hell, but he actually fought back for once. Now these two had to show up. She stopped just before reaching her iinazuke when she heard the cry. Like a blur she saw Ukyo and Shampoo race towards their mutual love interest with arms out stretched. Time seemed to slow down as they got near their target. They started to enclose their arms around the man they loved only to suddenly discover they were hugging thin air. With loud, painful sounding thuds the two girls flew past where Ranma had been a millisecond ago and hit the floor skidding to a halt.

"Uh, what just happened?" Ukyo asked dazedly as she picked herself up.

Ranma made a gesture with his hand, which was the universal sign for "get over here" and went into a fighting stance. "Now, its your turn. Both of you." he said with a roguish smirk.

"Humph! Shampoo show Airen she make strong wife!" the bubbly Amazon exclaimed with a smile. She had no clue as to what was going on but knew that her husband wanted to spar and that's all she needed to know. From out of nowhere she withdrew a pair of big bonbori maces.

"Hey! I'm the one marrying him, sugar!" Ukyo retorted as she unslung her giant baker's peel.

Akane gaped at them and said, "Hey, what about ..." She stopped her sentence when the three started moving. She could immediately tell that something had changed. Ranma wasn't slowing himself down; he was moving at full speed. 'Oh my Kami-sama, he's not holding back!' she shouted to herself.

Moving with incredible grace and fluidity, Ranma literally flowed around Shampoo's first assault. She came in swinging with both bonbori, her deceptively lite frame hid the fact that she was very strong, so she was able to easily control the huge metal weapons with ease. Despite her strength she was still easy to knock off balance. Ranma was quite willing to demonstrate this by diving under the blue haired Amazon's follow up attack, slide underneath her legs and deliver a good kick to the rump. Shampoo eeped as she went flying forward loosing her grip on her bonbori as she fell. The pigtailed boy didn't forget his other foe. Ukyo tried to take advantage of Ranma's position on the floor but underestimated him. His body snapped like a whip sending him into a blindingly fast handstand as Ukyo's baker's peel struck where he's been laying a split second before. Using his hands, Ranma leapt into the air, landed with one foot on Ukyo's head and sent himself flying at Shampoo who had recovered her weapons.

"HEY!" shouted Ukyo in surprise that Ranma would actually do that to her.

Akane watched spellbound. She'd seen him fight before but not like this. Well, yes she saw him fight like this usually when it was with Ryoga, but not Ukyo and Shampoo. Neither girl would land a single hit. Then, Akane saw an almost imperceptible change in Ranma's movements. 'He's gone from defensive to offensive,' thought Akane.

After vaulting off of Ukyo's head, Ranma was flying towards Shampoo. She sent her bonbori upwards to block him but he just used them as a platform to run up and deliver a kick to her chest. The Amazon cried, "AIYA!" all the way across the dojo to the far wall, which collapsed from the force of the impact.

"Whoa!" Akane gapped in awe.

The youngest Tendo sister almost cried out in warning as Ukyo swung at Ranma from behind. As if he had eyes in the back of his head he bent forward to avoid the first swing, then leapt into a flying kick spin to avoid the follow up. Ukyo leaned away as Ranma's foot passed just a few inches from her face. Ukyo gasped and leapt backwards when she felt the wind burn from the near miss. If that had connected, she realized, it would have really hurt.

She reached for her bandoleer and with one motion threw her three spatula shurikens at him. Ranma didn't even bother to try and move. His hands whipped out at Amaguriken speed to catch them. The okonomiyaki chef was in a panic when the pigtailed boy sent them flying back at her. She leapt high to her right to avoid them when she suddenly realized he had only thrown two. The third came out of nowhere as she reached the apex of her jump. She tried to twist out of the way to avoid it but the thing was moving too fast. Ukyo closed her eyes and waited for the pain. Instead she felt a feeling of acceleration and an impact that knocked the wind out of her. She opened her eyes painfully to see that the last shuriken had pierced the top left side of her bandoleer and the force of it carried her to the dojo wall. Basically, she was pinned to the wall like a decoration by her own weapon!

"That ... was ... so ... cool," Akane said in awe of Ranma's display of prowess.

"R ... R ... Ranchan, a ... a ... are you ok?" asked Ukyo who was a little shaken up at the moment.

Without saying a word he walked up and pulled out the shuriken. The okonomiyaki chef fell rather onto her rump with a plop.

"Owie! You could have caught me you jackass!" she exclaimed, rubbing her bottom.

Ranma simply replied, "What would be the fun in that?" And gave the girl his best roguish smile, the one that always made her knees go weak. It made Akane see red, he was flirting again.

"What's all this racket out here? What! Oh my dojo, oh my wall, oh my Kami-sama!" Soun cried upon seeing the Shampoo shaped hole in the wall of his precious dojo.

Ranma walked past him and patted the crying man on the shoulder. "Chill out old man, I'll fix it later." he said nonchalantly.

Akane and Ukyo looked at each other a bit confused and followed behind him. They got to the wall and look where Shampoo was laying. Outside the hole in the wall she was laying in a short, deep trench in the lawn.

"Holy crap, how hard did he hit her?" Akane gasped and went to help the Amazon up. Shampoo looked dazed but none too worse for wear.

"Aiya, someone get number of Ranma shaped truck that hit Shampoo?" she slurred.

Akane looked over in shock when Ukyo came around the other side of the Amazon to help her get the large girl inside. "Come on Akane, lets get her inside," she said. "And maybe we can get some answers from Ranma about this."

"He was holding back against me but he went all out against you two," said Akane when they got into the house and laid Shampoo on the floor next to the dinning room table. Akane went over to the closet and pulled out a pillow for the Amazon's head.

"Yeah, sugar, why was that?" Ukyo asked looking straight at Ranma who was already at the table. For a moment she didn't realize it but the pigtailed martial artist was drinking sake instead of tea. Then, she noticed Genma sprawled out on the floor with a big round bump on his head.

"Since when did you drink?" she asked suspiciously.

"Since today," he replied and offered her a cup. "Want some?"

Wide eyed, she took the cup and her nose told her it was sake alright. "Ranchan, are you feeling alright? You aren't acting like yourself," she said with concern. Absently she drank the contents of the cup down in one gulp. She immediately began to feel really warm all over. It was the first time she'd ever really drank the stuff. Ranma, though, was downing it at a rate that rivaled his father.

She slammed her fists on the table and demanded, "Ok, who are you and where is the real Ranchan?"

"Ukyo, he's the real Ranma," said Akane. "I've been with him since we came home from the hospital this morning."

Ukyo looked at her suspiciously but then relaxed a bit. There really wasn't any reason for Akane to lie to her because she'd eventually learn the truth one way or another. Also, since when did Akane want to be with Ranma anyway?

"Ok, so then why are you drinking and why did you beat me and Shampoo like redheaded step children?" Ukyo demanded, handing her cup out to be refilled. Akane face faltered on the table with a thump.

"That part was fun. I was still holding back a little though, didn't want to make it too hard for you," Ranma replied before taking another drink.

Ukyo's face turned white and she said, "You were holding back. B ... But Ranchan, 'you' don't hit girls." In all the time she'd known him she'd never seen him really hit a girl deliberately. Well, unless that girl was Kodachi or the situation was really serious. He never ever hit a girl in a spar. He'd spar with her from time to time but like with Akane he'd mostly just dodge but never initiate an attack. It was one of the things that both infuriated her and made her fall in love with him at the same time.

"Was a stupid idea of oyagi's," he shrugged. "Some girls can be just as dangerous as guys, sometimes even more." When he said this Akane swore his eyes turned to look at her. For an instant her heart skipped a beat and her blood ran cold.

Did he blame me for what happened to him? Does he hate me now? A part of her didn't want to know the answers to those questions. She was beginning to feel as if she might actually loose him. It was a feeling she wasn't accustom to.

Ukyo beamed at him. "Good, maybe you'll be a little less sexist then," she said.

"Ugh," Shampoo groaned as she sat up.

"Kasumi-chan, could you bring some water in for Shampoo?" Ranma leaned back towards the kitchen entrance and asked.

"Of course, Ranma-kun," the eldest of the Tendo sisters replied with a smile. She didn't miss how he said her name and came out of the kitchen with a blush on her face.

Akane and Ukyo both blinked and said, "Kasumi-chan?"

"OH MY!" Kasumi gasped when she tripped on one of Genma's out stretched arms. Ranma reacted instantly; being more concerned for Kasumi than he was for the water, he caught the girl and let the water hit him. He felt the telltale tingling that came along with the transformation and thought nothing of it. He'd gotten so used to it over the past year and half that the change never really bothered him so much anymore.

Kasumi caught her breath and swallowed her heart, which had gone up into her throat. She was about to stand up when her eyes scanned past Ranma and she yelped in shock. Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo were all three in a state of shock. The now female Ranma looked at them a bit puzzled before she noticing her hands.

Her hands were a dark tan color like she'd been sunning herself for several days. She took off her red Chinese style silk shirt and checked her arms. They were darkly tanned as well. It was fortunate for Tendo Soun that she was wearing a tank top t-shirt under her Chinese silk shirt. He came in at that moment and immediately fainted, this time without a nosebleed.

"R ... R ... Ranchan?" Ukyo said hesitantly.

"Airen look different to Shampoo," the Amazon stated the obvious.

And Akane added, "How?"

Ranma held the glass up to her face and look at her faded reflection in its smooth surface. She still pretty much looked the same, her facial features were the same as she remembered them, but that is where the similarities ended. Her eyes were still blue, but her skin was as darkly tanned as the rest of her body. But, it was her hair that was the most strikingly different of them all. It was a bright, lustrous, platinum blond, and not just that but it had instantly grown into a huge, sensuous mane of platinum locks.

"I ... look hot," she said and the girl all face faltered so hard the shock waves were detected on seismographs all over the Pacific Rim.

SQUEEZE! SQUEEZE! "Oh I'll say," said a voice all of the girls knew very well and equally hated.

The most loathsome and hated martial arts master on the planet was planted on Ranma's chest fondling her generous attributes. She looked down at him with a smile for a few moments before she reached up and whacked up beside the head. The master of all things Hentai landed on his rear end on the table and rubbed the new around bump on his noggin.

"Don't you have any respect for your elders?" Happosai growled angrily.

Ranma growled back, "That's my line." Which illicited some Spock Maneuvers from the girls.

The ancient martial arts master immediately calmed himself and started tapping his pipe like he was getting ready to light it. "You've changed, Ranma my boy. That new look suits you really well."

"I'm ecstatic that you approve," Ranma replied, but the look on her face said otherwise and the girls all had a suddenly and unexplainable urge to back away fast.

"Why yes, that incredible tan, that luscious hair. Why it reminds of another woman I know with a tan and platinum blond hair," the old man said reminiscing about his past.

Ranma folded her arms and said, "You met her in Barbados three years ago. You stole the top of her bikini and made her chase after you for four hours topless trying to get it back from you."

The old man laughed so hard he fell backwards. "Hahahahaha! Oh that was so much fun, you should have seen it!" he cried.

"How do you know that?" Akane asked her before the other two girls would ask.

Ranma laughed, "Yeah, all the boys on the beach were dropping like flies, blood squirting all over the place. It would have been funny but I was too pissed off at the time." She didn't catch the fact that Ranma said "I" until it was too late.

"What the hell?" Ukyo yelled when she also noticed the reference.

"Opps," Ranma said putting her hands over her mouth.

Happosai leaned towards Ranma and looked at her very closely. His eyes lingered over her chest for a moment and then went up to her face. When he saw the markings he gasped in shock.

"U ... Urd-sama?" he asked hesitantly with a little bit of fear in his voice.

"I knew it!" Ukyo exclaimed and nearly cleaved the table in half with her giant baker's peel.

"I'm called Ranma now," the platinum haired martial artist replied with a smirk.

"Where's Ranma?" Akane demanded stomping one foot up on the remnants of the table.

It was what Happosai said next that made the girls pause. "Oh shit! If you're here and you look like Ranma-chan, then that means ... that means! Oh shit, what happened to the boy, who tried to kill him?" he started shouting both in terror and in rage at the same time. Akane's blood ran cold and she stepped away from the table as did Ukyo and Shampoo. None of them knew what exactly was happening, they didn't know who this impostor was but it looked like the old freak might hold the answers. They each decided to wait and see where this was going.

Ranma sighed and poured herself the last of the sake. "Dammit, I was hoping to have some time before having to explain this but ... shit," she said and threw the empty bottle across the room.

"The assimilation is complete then, isn't it?" asked Happosai who didn't know whether to be infinitely pleased or scared beyond all rational thought.

Ranma nodded and downed her glass. "Yeah, last night."

"Last ... night," Akane said and then remembered what happened in the shrine at the hospital. The memory came back to her in clarity, the dead flowers coming back to life and the voice whispering in her ear, "Wish granted." What was this about assimilation? What were they talking about? Did it have anything to do with what happened at the hospital? Anyone who knew Akane knew she sometimes was a ditz but sometimes she put two and two together rather quickly. In this case she did just that.

"Oh ... my ... Kami-sama," she gasped and her hands flew to her mouth as she looked at her female iinazuke in both shock and awe.

"W ... What?" Ukyo said giving her a questioning look.

Shampoo just scratched her head and said, "Shampoo is confused."

"Whoohoo! My two favorite people bound up in one body! Sweeto!" cried Happosai and flung himself at Ranma's chest. The hentai in him won out over his fear and apprehension. He didn't get far though. Ranma raised her hand and lightning shot out from her fingers. The tiny hentai spasmed and squirmed in mid air for several seconds before dropping to the table a slightly crispy critter releasing gray smoke.

"Behave yourself or I'll blast you back to my mom," Ranma threatened him. The ancient hentai leapt to his feel and immediately prostrated himself before her in submission.

"NO! NO! Anything but that! Please show mercy!" he cried and the girls set off seismic detectors all around Japan again for the second time that day.

"Somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" Ukyo yelled in exasperation as she sat back up.

"Yeah, where is Ranma and who the hell are you?" Akane demanded.

And Shampoo said, "Outsider womans who steal Amazon husbands go very bad place!"

Ranma sighed but before she could say anything Happosai answered for her. "But, she 'is' Ranma" he said.

"Wait a minute you little troll, you just said her name was ... what was it again?" Ukyo asked and look over at Akane.

"Um, I think," she replied.

Ukyo nodded and said, "Yeah, Urd. You said she was Urd or something like that."

"How you look like Airen?" Shampoo asked Ranma.

Ranma sighed and said, "Because I am Ranma."

"Bullshit! Tell us another one sugar," growled Ukyo. She had her weapon in hand again and was tensing herself for a fight.

"I don't wanna fight ya," Ranma replied. "I'm Ranma, that's all ya need to worry about."

"Like hell I do, you're telling me where Ranchan is right now or I'm beating it out of you!" Ukyo exclaimed and launched her first attack. Ranma rolled backwards to avoid the swing of the weapon, which cleaved the air where she'd been sitting a second before. With a single, powerful bound she flew out of the shogi doors and into the back yard. The three girls all ran out in the back yard after her. Kasumi came into the room, look at the destruction, sighed, and went back into the kitchen for the dustpan and broom.

All three women were pissed off at this point and Ranma knew there was no talking to them. They didn't understand and until she could calm them down she wouldn't be able to explain anything. Many strategies ran through her head on what to do. She could hit their pressure points to paralyze them but that meant getting in close and this time the girls were fighting a lot harder than before. Finally, she decided on the one strategy that she hoped would wake them up out of their rage before she was able to complete it.

Ukyo with her baker's peel, Shampoo with her bonbori maces, and Akane with Mallet-sama all came at the platinum haired girl with anger and hatred on their minds. Ranma dodged all of the their attacks, never hitting back. It took several minutes of this before Akane began to realize something was horribly wrong. It had to do with the way Ranma was moving. She didn't want to believe it at first but then she looked at the girl's face and saw the lack of emotion there and felt the waves of the cold air.

"STOP! She's leading us into a spiral!" she shouted in warning.

Ukyo's eyes went wide with shock. "But ... that's Ranchan's move!" she said loudly.

"Not ... Not even Shampoo know Hiryu Shoten Ha." said Shampoo. The ultimate move wasn't known by a lot of people. Cologne knew the move, and probably a lot of other Amazons too but Ranma was the only other person whom Akane and Ukyo knew could do it. They stood there waiting to see what this girl would say next.

Ranma took a deep breath and asked, "Will you please listen to me now?"

oOOOo

Shampoo just sat at the dinning room table looking thoroughly confused. She decided that she would have to go see her Great Grandmother and tell her what Ranma just said to figure all of this stuff out. Ukyo had an awed expression on her face when Ranma was done with her explanation. Akane seemed quiet, unreadable.

"Is that the truth?" Ukyo asked Ranma.

"I swear to my Father" she replied putting up one hand. A peel of thunder rolled across the clear blue sky. "Uh, sorry." she said look up at the ceiling.

"Holy shi ... oops, I mean holy crap," Ukyo gasped then remember whom or more importantly what was in the room with her. She couldn't deny what Ranma or whoever she was now had said. Something deep within her was telling her it was the truth.

"Eh, I say shit all the time, don't sweat it Ucchan," Ranma reassured her.

"So, you're stuck like this?" Ukyo asked.

Ranma nodded. "Yep, for the rest of my life. Which just happens to be forever." she said.

They heard Akane heave a great sob and looked over at her with concern. The youngest of the Tendo sisters sat there with tears streaming down her eyes. Her hands were wringing the edge of her dress nervously as the tears began to fall. At first there was just a few drops, but soon they began a river.

"... because ... of me." she said between sobs.

"No, it was gonna happen eventually," Ranma said to her, hoping to stop her crying. "I mean I wasn't gonna stay young forever and pretty soon if we both wanted to keep on living we'd have to do this."

She cupped her hands in her face and cried, "I caused this!"

Faster than Ukyo and Shampoo could even perceive Ranma was at Akane's side. She put her arms around the larger girls shoulders and held her. "No, like I said, it started a long time ago. Eventually this woulda happened anyway," she tried to reassure her.

"OH KAMI-SAMA! I KILLED THE MAN I LOVE!" Akane screamed and began to beat her hands against her head and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Akane stop! You'll hurt yourself.!" Ranma shouted trying to get the girl to calm down.

"NO1 NO! I KILLED HIM! OH KAMI-SAMA! I KILLED ME!" Akane screamed completely out of control, all of her sadness and rage now totally focused on herself. Within seconds she was covered in self-inflicted whelps and cuts despite Ranma's attempts to stop her. Ukyo tried to help but proved no match for Akane's incredible strength. Nabiki, hearing the screams, came running down the stairs and froze where she stood when she saw her sister and Ranma.

"AKANE STOP IT! YOU DIDN'T KILL ME! YOU DIDN'T KILL ME! I DIDN'T DIE!" Ranma shouted, tears falling down her eyes. She was able to finally pin the girl's arms at her side and wrapped her arms around the grieving girl, holding her close at the same time.

Eventually, the girl started to grow tired and just laid in Ranma's embrace sobbing uncontrollably. Nabiki gave Ukyo a look that said, "What the hell did I miss?" and walked around the table to kneel next to her little sister.

"I'm not dead, you didn't kill me Akane-chan. I'm alive. You didn't kill me," Ranma repeated in the girl's ear soothingly. Soon, Akane's sobs began to subside and she fell asleep in her arms. By this time the fathers had both recovered and were just about as confused as Shampoo, but seeing Akane in Ranma's arms did brighten things up for them. I didn't seem to register with Soun yet that Akane wasn't acting like her usual self. Luckily neither of them had heard a thing of what Ranma has just told the girls a few minutes ago.

"I think you'd better tell me what's going on here, Saotome," Nabiki said to her.

Ranma whispered in reply, "Not in front of the parents. I do not want those two baka knowing a damn thing about this. At least not yet."

"Lets put her in her room," Nabiki said. With great ease Ranma lifted the sleeping Akane in her arms and hurried up the stairs past Nabiki. The middle Tendo sister followed and made sure the fathers didn't follow them upstairs. In Akane's room she closed the door and locked it while Ranma carefully placed Akane on her bed.

"Ok, why did my little sister flip out, and why are you a platinum blond?" Nabiki demanded.

Ranma turned around to face her and met Nabiki's grim visage. To her surprise, which Nabiki kept well hidden, Ranma didn't flinch away or cower one bit. "If I tell ya it don't go no further than you, me, Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo," Ranma told her.

"Or else what?" Nabiki asked with a smirk and folded her arms. She put on an act that she was clearly in control of the situation, while in truth she had no idea what she was really up against.

"Or, I'll make your life is a living hell," Ranma replied.

"That's my line." Nabiki scowled at her. She wasn't accustom to being threatened, and especially by someone who had been a notorious pushover like Ranma.

"I mean it Nabiki, you do not want to know what I am capable of." Ranma growled at her and slowly advanced. The blood quickly drained from the taller girl's face. She'd never seen Ranma like this before. She was assertive, aggressive, and totally in control. Nabiki thought Ranma's change in attitude had only been just an anomaly but now she wasn't so sure anymore.

"I'll scream," she said as she backed against the door.

Ranma looked her in the eyes and said, "Nobody can run fast enough to get up here in time."

"Fine, whatever you want. I'll keep it a secret, so what is it anyway?" Nabiki asked throwing up her hands in defeat. She wasn't used to loosing a fight, her kind of fight anyway, and right now she was not in the mood to find out how far she could push Ranma at the moment.

The platinum haired martial artist visibly deflated and sat on the bed. "It actually started back when I saw just six. Oyagi threw me into that pit of cats and sealed me in. I was so scared, they were biting me and scratching me trying to get at the fish." she said.

"You ... Ranma you just said cat without stuttering," Nabiki pointed out with wide-eyed surprise.

"Then, I felt something. Someone was with me, I could feel her arms around me and she whispered in my ear and made the cats go away. Ever since that day I always felt like someone was always with me, looking over my shoulder, and holding me at night when I was cold and hungry." she continued to explain.

"But what does that have to do with right now?" Nabiki asked, hoping Ranma was getting to the point of all this.

"That someone came to me last night. I was dying Nabiki, I would have died last night but that someone who came to me when I was in that pit came to me and ..." Ranma said and looked away.

"And?" Nabiki asked her. She moved close and could tell this was affecting Ranma badly.

"I, we, are not the same Ranma anymore," Ranma told her and looked up at Nabiki. "I was once Saotome Ranma, martial artist and heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. I was once Urd, Goddess of the Past and of Love." When she said "Love" she made a sultry smile.

"Ok, it's obvious you still haven't quite fully recovered yet," Nabiki said with a sigh. Before she could turn to leave the room Ranma raised her hands and began to chant in a strange language the middle Tendo sister had never heard before.

Swirling motes of light flowed like smoke around Ranma's hands as she drew complex patterns in the air, when she finished her chant she brought her hands together and a shower of glittering lights spread across the room. Nabiki was about to say something when she detected movement in the corner of her eye. She turned and gasped in shock as Akane's doll collection start to move around on their own. A male doll in a tux bowed deeply to a female doll in a dress and they began to dance across the floor. The other dolls were also dancing together and doing ballet. This went on for several minutes until the effect of the spell wore off and the dolls slumped to the floor once again lifeless inanimate objects.

"Oh my Kami-sama," Nabiki breathed in disbelief.

"He's my father, and he don't like it when people use his name in vain," Ranma told her bringing the girl out of her dazed state.

"So, who are you? Ranma or Urd, or are you Ranma when you're a boy and Urd when you're a girl?" Nabiki asked her no longer able to come up with anything that might disprove what she just saw.

"I'm both," Ranma explained. "I assimilated with Ranma as a child to save him from being lost to the madness of the Nekoken. We are one mind, one body, and one soul."

What Ranma had said was really starting to sink in when Nabiki asked her, "You're a Goddess?"

"As far as I know, I don't think my license has been revoked though I know Father wasn't too happy with my methods, and I have two sisters." Ranma said.

Having Ranma speak of Kami-sama as her father was weirding Nabiki out in the worst way, then she caught on to that last part. "Sisters?" she inquired.

"Belldandy and Skuld. You'll like Bell, she's just like Kasumi-chan except she does have a nasty temper sometimes, and then there's Skuld. She's sometimes a real pain in the ass but she is family and her heart is in the right place." Ranma laughed

"And they are Goddesses too?" Nabiki asked her. She was expecting to see that long dead American named Rod Serling to step out of the shadows any time now.

Ranma nodded. "Bell is the Goddess of the Present and Skuld is the Goddess of the Future. They call us the Norns in certain circles."

The so-called Ice Queen waved her hands in the air and said, "Whoa, wait, wait! You mean to say that because of what happened yesterday you are now a goddess, you have two sisters who are goddesses, and your father is Kami-sama?"

Ranma smiled and said, "Took you long enough."

"I ... I ... I mean, what the hell am I supposed to call you?" Nabiki asked and put her face in her hands. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed deeply. She had never felt so totally not in control of a situation like she did now and she really didn't like the feeling one bit, but what could she do about it?

"Call me Ranma," said the platinum hair goddess/martial artist.

oOOOo

The next day didn't come fast enough for the girls. Ukyo and Shampoo had both went home to think about what they'd been told. Shampoo tried several times to explain things to Cologne, and what she heard had her very worried. She felt a massive surge of energy in the city the night before. Could it have been when this so called assimilation took place? Nabiki was still in a daze about what had been said and true to her word she kept what was said a secret from their parents.

At about noon Akane came downstairs. She looked like hell with bloodshot eyes. Nabiki knew the girl had been crying again but wasn't freaking out like before. Akane walked up to where the fathers were playing, eh, cheating, at a game of Shoji. She looked extremely nervous about something. Nabiki got up and walked over to stand beside her to lend her support. She wasn't used to this sort of thing either, but she did care about her family. Reputation be damned.

"Daddy, Mr. Saotome," Akane said in a meek voice.

"Huh? Oh, Akane dear, are you feeling better today?" Soun asked her.

Genma looked at her and asked, "Have you been crying?"

"Daddy, Mr. Saotome, I ... I ... I ..." she tried to say but couldn't make the words some out. She felt someone take her hand and was surprised to see it was Nabiki.

"I ... I'm withdrawing myself as Ranma's iinazuke," she told them. The explosion could have been heard around the world.

"AKANE, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! THE SCHOOLS MUST BE JOINED! WAAAHHH!" Soun cried and the waterworks were turned on in full force.

"THAT NO GOOD UNGRATEFUL SON OF MINE, WHAT DID HE DO NOW? OH THE DISHONOR! OH THE DISGRACE!" Genma exclaimed in rage.

"STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!" Akane shouted at them as the tears began to fall. The fathers both did as she said and looked at her with their full attention.

"I ... I ... don't deserve him. I have a problem with my temper, and until I figure out a way to learn how to control it I can't be with him anymore or anyone else," she said to them and felt Nabiki squeeze her hand.

"But Akane ..." Soun said but was cut off.

"Daddy stop, please just stop, I don't want to hurt him anymore. I almost killed him, daddy. Please just let it go. Let Nabiki or Kasumi carry on the engagement but I just can't do it. I can't risk hurting him again. Please just let it go," Akane sobbed, pulled out of Nabiki's hand and ran upstairs.

"Oh my," Kasumi said from the kitchen entrance. She heard the whole thing. She didn't hear what had been said yesterday to Ukyo and Shampoo but she knew enough to know something major had just changed in her household. Now she and Nabiki stood there looking at one another.

One of them was going to be engaged to Ranma ... tonight.

oOOOo

To be continued...

Chapter 3: A Sister's Love

Everyone knows that Urd and Skuld never really seem to get along, but deep inside they love one another. When Skuld learns what happened she finds it impossible to hold it in any longer. Get your tissue paper out for the next episode.


	3. Chapter 3

_The follow story is a work of fan fiction using characters that are copyrighted and/or trademarked. The purpose of this story is for fan enjoyment only free of charge. All original content is protected by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License._

**oOOOo**

**Visit my website for news and other goodies. The link is on my author's profile page.**

**Special thanks to ThreadWeaver for his pre-reading assistance.**

**oOOOo**

**Michael "TheZorch" Haney's**

"**Ranma Ascension"**

**oOOOo**

**Chapter 3 - "A Sister's Love"**

Belldandy felt a little guilty for leaving Keiichi behind but being the kind, generous, and trusting person he was he said that it was ok. She explained to him that it had something to do with Urd but she wasn't quite sure how to really explain the whole story to him yet. How was someone to explain that her sister was now her brother and there was no changing her back? She'd think of a way when she got back home.

Keiichi just assumed Urd had gotten herself into trouble and needed Belldandy and Skuld to save her. In a way he came somewhat close to the mark, but in this instant there was no way to save Urd from her fate.

She chose this path a long time ago and there wasn't any way to turn around.

Skuld slept soundly against Belldandy's shoulder as they rode the train to Tokyo. It was a long ride to get to Nerima-ku from Nekomi-ku. The town was a bit more congested than Nekomi and had fewer large parks and green ways along the streets. After getting off the train Skuld remained quiet and spoke very little. Belldandy looked at her worriedly from time to time as they walked down the street. It wasn't like Skuld to bottle things up like this. She normally spoke her mind at all times and wasn't afraid to do so either. Something was really bothering the little goddess. Belldandy knew how protective her little sister was over her, but when it came to Urd it like they were a pair of sore tailed cats ready to rip each other to pieces. Well, maybe not that bad but not a day didn't go by where they didn't fight it out for some odd reason or another. Belldandy secretly wondered if Skuld's feelings for their half-sister were maybe a bit stronger than she might let on.

It was opening time for the Nekohauten. The early lunchtime crowd would be coming soon so they had to be ready. Cologne took the sign out front while Shampoo and Mousse prepared things inside. She balanced on her wooden stick and started sweeping the front sidewalk while she whistled a happy little tune that her mother had taught her a long time ago when she was young. Usually she made Mousse or Shampoo do this chore but today was a nice sunny day and she often didn't get a chance to get out of the restaurant. Cologne was nearly done when she felt the presence of an immensely powerful aura approaching. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. The ancient Amazon focused her mind's eye on this aura and gasped.

It was a perfect ... pure ... untainted aura. But that was impossible ... unless ...

"So how far until we get there Belldandy-oneechan?"

Cologne turned and almost fell off of her stick. The woman's face brought back vivid memories of her youth. She had been a very young child back then. After chasing one of the feral cats that often stole food from the village she found herself hopelessly lost in the woods. Frightened, alone, and surrounded by wild animals the young Cologne curled up into a ball at the base of a great tree and started to cry. When night fell the young Cologne cried out into the night for her mother until her little voice started to crack. That was when she saw the light descending from the heavens. Upon beautiful white wings a vision of loveliness swooped down and gather little Cologne gently into her arms.

"Dry your eyes little one. Kami-sama has heard your cry and sent me to take you home," the beautiful winged goddess said to her in perfect Mandarin Chinese. Young Cologne grew very tired from her crying and in the woman's warm, comforting embrace fell fast asleep. When she awoke she was safe in her bed and tucked into her warm blankets. Cologne never forgot that day.

"It cannot be," Cologne said out loud as the woman and her young companion approached.

Belldandy looked up and saw the strange little woman balanced almost perfectly on a twisted old stick. No matter how long ago it had been nor how old she had become, there was no way that Belldandy could have mistaken this person for anyone else.

"Hello again," Belldandy said sweetly with a smile and polite bow. "It's been a very long time."

"Its ... its ... its you, but that can't be." Cologne choked out.

"You were just a child when we last met," Belldandy replied. "I'm so glad to see you doing so well."

The little girl standing next to the woman from Cologne's past looked up at her in confusion. "Who is she, oneechan?" she asked her.

"Skuld, this is Cologne, matriarch of the Joketsuzoku," Belldandy explained to Skuld. "She got lost when she was a five years old. Father heard her mother's prayer for her to return home safely."

They heard the sound of the stick hitting the ground and turned to see Cologne kneeling before them on her hand and knees. "I ... I've never forgotten you ... oh beautiful goddess on white wings." Cologne wept. Belldandy knelt down and motioned for Cologne to stand up. Reluctantly Cologne stood and like the child she had been so long ago allowed the woman before her to wipe the tears from her eyes.

Belldandy smiled at her and said, "You don't have to bow, Cologne-chan. Dry your eyes for Kami-sama still loves you."

"Oneechan?" the young goddess said in an exasperated tone.

Belldandy looked at her, gasped and asked Cologne, "Oh yes. Cologne-chan, can you tell us where to find .. um .. Tendo-ke?" Cologne gasped and her eyes went wide with surprise. A few seconds later Mousse and Shampoo heard Cologne call to them from the front door tell them she was going out to handle something.

"I suspect this has something to do with recent events?" Cologne asked as she led the two young goddesses down the street towards the dojo.

Belldandy nodded. "Hai. So you are acquainted with Saotome Ranma?" she asked.

"You 'could' say that," Cologne replied.

Tendo-ke wasn't far from the Nekohauten, just a few blocks away actually. The three stopped before the main front gates and look at the roofed wall that surrounded the household. Skuld examined the sign hung by the gate and humphed.

"Challengers to the dojo please use the rear entrance? Belldandy, this place is a martial arts dojo, are you sure this is the right place?" she asked her sister.

Cologne smiled and said, "Oh this is the right place alright." She pogoed up to the gate and gave them a gentle shove. Belldandy gaped in awe at the beautifully maintained flowerbeds at the front entrance to the house before them. She could hear the flowers singing gleefully. Only flowers who had been tended to with loving care and attention sang so beautifully. As they approached the house she felt the spirit of the place. It was content. She felt chaos here too but the house seemed to put up with it just so it could have the attention of whomever it was who made it so happy. There was a lot of love worked into the wood of this house. Belldandy wanted to meet this someone. He or she must be truly extraordinary do accomplish such spiritual purity.

Cologne felt none of this as she rang the doorbell. Normally she'd hop in unannounced but this visit required finesse. She didn't know why Belldandy wanted to see her future son-in-law but what Shampoo tried to explain to her last night was starting to really worry her. Something "major" has happened to Ranma and whatever it was there was a strong likelihood that its going to have immense repercussions on the rest of Nerima; not to mention her efforts to get him for Shampoo's airen. Something in the back of her mind told her that would be impossible now. She had to be certain first.

The door opened to reveal Tendo Kasumi. Belldandy's smile brightened as she heard the flowers cheer. So this was the one who tended to her home with such love and care. Her soul was pure and gentle; it shined bright like a beacon. This one had to be one of her Father's special chosen.

"Ohaiyo Cologne-san, what can I do for you?" Kasumi asked then noticed the two people with here. One was a very attractive young gaijin woman with strong European features. Next to her was an adorable little girl who could be her little sister. Kasumi was usually a good judge of people's character and something about these two people told her they were alright.

"Ara, and who are your friends?" she asked with that gentle warmhearted smile for which she was loved throughout Nerima. Cologne bounced aside to let the goddesses come forward. She looked from Kasumi to Belldandy and back again. Though they looked different from one another the peace they exuded and serenity that followed them was almost identical.

"Hello, my sister and I have come to see Ranma. Is he at home?" Belldandy asked with a polite bow.

Kasumi smiled pleasantly and replied, "Why yes he is. Please come in." She stepped aside and beckoned for them to enter. Belldandy and Skuld left their shoes at the genkan and followed the eldest Tendo sister through the house and into the living room. The smell of sake smacked them in the face as the shogi doors were opened. Skuld sighed and shook her head. She had a guess as to whom was responsible for that.

"Ranma-kun, you have visitors." Kasumi announced politely. The serene calm lasted all of ten seconds.

"RANMA! Who are these two girls!? More girlfriends of yours!? Oh the schools will never be joined! WAAAHHHH!!!!"

Belldandy looked a bit startled at that reaction from the people in the room. The one shouting was an older man who had a very depressed soul. He wore dark gray hamaka robes like the Japanese samurai of old, sported a thick mustache, and had long hair. His tears were spraying all over the room like geysers. Next to him sat a man in an off-white martial arts gi. On his head he wore a white head wrap and a pair of sports style strap-on glasses. Both of them sat at a kotatsu, a low table surrounded by a curtain with a heater underneath to warm the feet.

"Speak up boy, what's the meaning of this!?" the man with the glasses demanded.

A young girl dressed in a school uniform sat at the kotatsu sipping some tea. She seemed really sad and depressed. Her hair was cut short in a cute fashion. When she heard the outburst from the two men an angry look came to her face for just a few seconds then it was gone.

"Hello, imoutochan."

The two men froze in their rantings and the young girl looked at the speaker with a surprised expression. The young girl turned to look at Belldandy and tears began to well up in her eyes. Ranma sat directly across from her. He had a sake gas in one hand and a large bottle in the other. He was back to male form. Cologne looked between Ranma and Belldandy. She was confused as the rest of them. As far as she knew Ranma had no siblings.

Young Skuld looked at him with a disbelieving expression. Belldandy knelt down at the table and regarded her new brother with a gentle smile. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Though she looked nothing like Kasumi at all, Akane found herself comparing this girl Ranma had just called "sister" to her oldest sister. Ranma finished off his glass of sake and said, "I'm ok I guess." He looked at Skuld who remained unusually quiet and was just looking down at her hands.

"Since when do you drink, son-in-law?" Cologne asked him. She was close enough now to read Ranma's aura. It was very different now than when she last saw him. Dramatically different actually. What in the name of Kami-sama has happened to him?

Belldandy looked at her with confusion at the son-in-law reference. She knew very little about Saotome Ranma. As one of the Chosen information on his file was restricted on a need to know basis. That has changed now because of his new status, however.

Ranma lightly waved the sake bottle at Cologne and replied, "What do you want old ghoul?"

"Belldandy-sama passed by the Nekohauten and asked for directions here, and Shampoo came home yesterday telling some very confusing story about you not being Ranma anymore and that you're girl side had platinum blond hair," Cologne answered him.

Genma slapped his hand on the kotatsu and demanded, "Wait, I remember that. What's with that anyway, boy?"

Soun backed his old friend up with a vigorous nod. "Yes son, speak up," he said.

Ranma gave them a sidelong glance when he said, "Maybe I should suggest to Happosai that he should take you two on a nice long extended training trip." The two men promptly turned as white as ghosts, sat down, and clammed up.

"ARA!" Belldandy gasped at the mention of the other "H" word, looked around nervously and covered up her chest.

Skuld jumped to her feet seething in anger. "BAKA! You let Belldandy come here with that 'thing' wandering around loose!?" she cried. It was the first thing she said since entering the house.

Ranma waved at her nonchalantly and told her, "He knows better than to pull anything with me around, and besides the local girl's private school is in session so he'll be away all day."

"By the way, nice to see you too squirt," Ranma added with a playful wink and poured himself another glass of sake. Skuld put her nose up and looked away, but when she though Ranma wasn't looking she quickly turned very sad.

"Would you like some tea?" Kasumi asked as she came out of the kitchen with the tea service. She sat it on the table and started handing out cups.

"Why yes, thank you." Belldandy thanked her with a smile.

Genma had recovered a bit from Ranma's comment and slammed his hand on the kotatsu again. "Wait a minute! How do you know these girls Ranma and why are you calling her 'sister'?" he demanded pointing a big, stubby finger at Belldandy.

Nabiki had been out to a regular meeting with her henchgirls ... um ... I mean associates when she entered through the main shogi doors. She took in the sudden chaos in her house which she immediately knew had to somehow be centered around Ranma and decided to listen in to find out what was going on. She heard Genma's angry question and looked at the pretty young gaijin woman sitting at the kotatsu. She had the same strange blue facial markings that Ranma seemed to have. Considering what Ranma had said yesterday she could only gather that Ranma's family had decided to show up for a visit. Thus, all hell had broken loose, of course.

Ranma sighed. He wanted his reunion with his sisters to be a happy occasion and not a shouting match. At least Akane was being civil which was a first. The fathers were being the fathers as usual. Those two stooges never change no matter what happens. He sensed Nabiki's presence the moment she walked through the front gates of Tendo-ke. He didn't know precisely if she was on his side or not right now. Its only been one day now since he confessed to everyone but the fathers exactly what happened to him. Kasumi was the same sweet, gentle hearted and understanding Kasumi. Later that night he took her aside and explained everything that she didn't get a chance to hear herself. It took a while for her to finally understand, and when she did finally realize the gravity of Ranma's transformation she cried. He held her for a long time that night while she sobbed on his shoulder. Kasumi was such a kind-hearted woman. He knew she cared for him like a little brother.

"Answer me boy!" Genma shouted at him.

A very dangerous look passed across Ranma's eyes. Akane saw it, Skuld saw it, and Belldandy definitely noticed it too. The three women started to back away from the kotatsu slowly. Akane didn't know what was coming but she didn't want to be in the way. Belldandy and Skuld had seen that look in Urd's eyes enough times to know that Ranma was pissed off. A pissed off Ranma equaled pissed off Urd and the two of them combined both equaled the promise of pain for the two idiots at the other end of the table. Cologne could feel an immense build up of spiritual energy coming from Ranma. She'd never felt anything this strong coming from him before, ever. So she backed away with the rest of the girls. Kasumi glided over to the table and quickly removed the family's tea service.

"You know oyagi, I've put up with your yelling, your abuse, your greed and gluttony for way too long," Ranma said in a flat, dangerous tone. He turned to Soun and fixed the man with a look that made Nabiki's evil eye look like an infant's wink.

"And you, you sorry excuse for a human being. Making your daughters do all the work keeping food on the table, bills paid, and the house cleaned at such young ages." Ranma was almost seething by this point and a visible aura of blue light was beginning to shimmer around the edges of his body.

He looked at both of them with a grim expression on his face. "Now my sisters have come here for a nice quiet visit and the two of you start up like a couple of spoiled children," he seethed through clenched teeth. "Sit down, shut up, or this will be you!" He immediately jumps to his feet, points towards the large stone ornament sitting in the Tendo's back yard and let loose a deafening blast. When the smoke cleared the ornament was nowhere to be seen. Where it had been was now a smoldering crater.

Looking like two terrified children, the fathers quickly sat back and said not another word. Ranma felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He didn't have to look up to know it was Bell. With a sigh he let her guide him back to the table. He looked across to where Skuld sat and saw her wide-eyed expression.

Skuld had seen her sis… brother… angry before but this was very different. Urd had never been on the edge of such a terrible rage before except that one time a year ago, but that was all over now. The side of Urd which was Ranma was having a major influence over her behavior. It made him unpredictable. As if Urd had ever really been predictable in her entire life, except when it came to sake and matchmaking.

"I didn't scare you did I squirt?" Ranma asked her.

Skuld leapt to her feet and slammed her fists onto the table. "Why!? Why did you assimilate with that boy, Urd? It's made you worse instead of better!" she shouted, almost sobbed, and ran out of the house into the back yard. Ranma watched her go with tears trailing behind her. He got up and quickly ran after her. Akane got up to go after them but a gentle hand held her firm.

"They need this time alone," Belldandy told her. "Skuld has a hard time showing her feelings sometimes."

"Assimilate?" Genma and Sound said to one another questioningly. Cologne's face turned very pale. If what that girl implied was truly what happened to Ranma ...

Soun looked to his middle oldest daughter and asked, "Nabiki dear, could you please tell me what exactly is going on? Why are Saotome and I being kept in the dark about this?"

Nabiki was about to say it was none of their business but Belldandy spoke before she could. "I'll tell you," she said to them. "It started many years ago when a man attempted to teach a forbidden martial arts technique to his son ..."

**oOOOo**

"Skuld?" Ranma shouted when he reached the back yard.

"Skuld where are you?" he called out again, in a pleading tone this time.

"Go away!"

Ranma's keen hearing picked up the little goddess' voice on the roof of the dojo. Instead of jumping he called upon his inner power and floated to the roof. He walked around and found the little goddess sitting with her knees up against her chest. She was looking away from him, refusing to acknowledge his very presence. Ranma walked up to her with the stealth of a cat.

"The sister I know wouldn't let her anger get almost out of control like that," Skuld said wiping her eyes.

"I'm not that sister you knew anymore," Ranma replied gently and sat down beside her. "I got a whole lot more emotional baggage now than I did before. Life's been pretty cruel to him ... me."

Skuld didn't say anything in reply. Ranma laughed and said, "Remember when we trashed Sayoko's party that one time. Belldandy got drunk off a can of Coke, it was hilarious."

Skuld giggled slight but acted like she was trying hard not to. "We did blow that place up pretty good," she said.

She felt a strong but gentle arm go around her. "I always enjoyed our fights," he said with a nostalgic sigh. Skuld looked up at him with a weak smile on her face and wiped at her tears again. On impulse they pulled one another into a tight hug and just held on to one another for a while.

Back in the Tendo home ...

"Wait, you can't serious!?" Genma shouted in disbelief.

Soun's hair stood up on end as he cried, "Ra ... Ra ... Ranma has become a Kami!?"

Nabiki sighed in exasperation at her father's over reaction. "Get a clue daddy, what do you think it was that saved him from dying?" she asked him.

"So, this is what Shampoo tried to tell me last night," Cologne said speaking up for the first time in a while. "I was wondering why Ranma's aura was so abnormal and how his power levels have grown so incredibly high. The idea of Ranma as a god is intriguing."

"Hai, Urd, Skuld, and myself were the three sisters," Belldandy explained. "We were the three sisters of fate, goddess with domain over the past, present and future. But now one of us is a god and a goddess both."

"Belldandy, Skuld, and Urd," Cologne said their names as if she might recognize them. Then her eyes went wide with surprise and she gasped in shock.

"The Three Fates of ancient Norse mythology," Cologne said in an awed tone. "Daughters of the great king of the gods himself, Odin."

Belldandy smiled at her gently and said, "But you know him best as Kami-sama."

THUD!

Everyone turned to see Soun sprawled out on the floor. Genma, sweating like the fat pig he was, looked at him nervously and then back at the young woman who was apparently Ranma's heavenly sister. If all of this was true, every bit of it, then there was no way neither he nor Soun could make Ranma fulfill the promise to join the school. Their days of being able to push the boy around were over. It was Ranma would be doing the pushing now, and he had the powers of a god to do it with.

"My sentiments exactly," he said to his unconscious friend.

**oOOOo**

Still holding the little goddess in his arms, Ranma said in a whisper in her ear, "You know, even though we fight a lot, I really do love you little sister." He felt a young goddess shake as the sobbing began. He held her tight for a long time until the sobbing finally stopped. He gently let her go and looked into Skuld's bloodshot eyes.

"Even though we fight a lot, I love you too," Skuld said while wiping her tears away.

Ranma regarded her with a smile and said, "Good, because with my new skills you and that junk heap will be no match for me now. Mwwahahahahahaha!!!" He leapt off the roof and down into the yard. Looking back he saw the little goddess not far behind. She grabbed something out of her pocket and threw it in his direction. The thing exploded open with a loud pop like a cork and out of the smoke came Bampei.

Skuld yelled as she alighted to the back yard, "Bampei, combat mode phase three! Firing pattern Skuld delta one!" The little makeshift robot beeped in compliance, turned towards Ranma, and unleashed a torrent of high explosive missiles. Ranma dodged around the projectiles with ease and they hit the wall surrounding the property with fiery blasts.

"Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me!" Ranma yelled back sing-song like at her. Skuld fumed at her, reached into her pocket and pulled out something that should not have been able to fit in there. She was barely able to heft the huge cylindrical object up to her shoulder.

"Kiss this!" she shouts back and clicks a button. The contraption starts to hum and make the sound like a jet engine powering up. It shakes, rattles, and makes a huge roaring around. In the open gun barrel like end of the device came a bright yellow glow.

"Uh oh!" the pig tailed boy gasped before a wide, blindingly bright beam of energy shot out from the weapon and instantly vaporized whatever it hit. When the weapon finished its discharge it was giving off black smoke and a sickening acrid odor of ozone and burnt electronics. A swath of destruction had been torn through the yard, outside of the Tendo property and down the street. Basically, the entire street was GONE! Not to mention any cars parked there. Fortunately none of the homes were hit.

"Wow, that was a close one," Ranma said from his perch on one of the large stones ringing the koi pond. He sat crossed legged and regarded his little sister thoughtfully. "Now that's the Skuld I know and love," he added.

Skuld turn towards him clasping her hands to her chest and her eyes bright with innocent glee. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, though I think you went a little overboard on that last one," he replied.

Skuld fidgeted and scrapped the toe of her shoe in the dirt. "Sorry," she apologized.

Now that the sounds of Ragnarök have finally subsided the family comes out of the house to survey the destruction. Nabiki almost passes out when she calculates in her mind how much it would cost to fix all of the damages. Akane's looks around in absolute awe at the scene and then look at the two who caused it. Cologne is quite pale, if Ranma's new little sister could do such damage then what was he capable of? Soun, now awake, came running out of his house screaming.

"My yard, my wall, my god!"

Ranma laughed and said to him, "Don't worry, we'll fix it, won't you Skuld?"

The little girl fumed, "ME? You started it!"

"True but you're but the one who vaporized half the neighborhood," he replied with a shit-eating grin.

Steaming mad the little goddess reached back and yanked out the weapon of choice for all angry young Japanese schoolgirls. Akane watched and felt very proud suddenly. Finally, she has met a kindred spirit.

"Ranma no baka!" WHACK!!! SPLASH!!!

"Ara," Kasumi asked when Ranma-chan floated up to the surface of the pond face down.

Nabiki slapped her own forehead and sighed, "Not another Akane, we can barely handle one."

Akane walked up and put her hand on Skuld's shoulder. "Nice swing," she said. "Could you show me that move?" Skuld's eyes went bright with delight.

"You use a mallet too?" she asked with glee.

Akane produced Mallet-Sama and showed it to her. "Wow, yours is way bigger than mine!" Skuld gasped in awe.

The sound of Nabiki slapping her hand over her face echoed again through the neighborhood. Kasumi, acting oblivious, went into the kitchen and put a kettle on to warm up for Ranma when he finally came to.

Cologne took this opportunity to leave quietly without anyone noticing. She was very nervous now. Ranma was a kami, and a powerful one. His power level was much higher than anything she'd ever felt before in her entire life. It was likely that he was now beyond her power to influence or coerce. She also certainly didn't want to anger the Kami in any way by harming Ranma. But, Amazon law was Amazon law and Ranma was still obligated to marry Shampoo no matter what. The only problem now was how to get him to do it when you no longer have the power to force him to do anything. It was obvious that she had a lot of think to do.

After a bit of tender scolding from Belldandy, both Ranma-chan and Skuld picked up the pieces of their "playtime" antics. With Bampei's help, they got the street repaved in less than an hour and were already working on the Tendo's wall. Nabiki was impressed and actually thought about kneeling in prayer tonight to thank Kami-sama for the incredible opportunity that had just landed in her lap. Now if only she could find a way to profit from all this.

"Tendo, what do we do now?" Genma asked his friend as they sat in the living room at their game board sipping sake.

Soun sighed, "I honestly don't know, Saotome. Its pretty clear now that we can't make Ranma do anything he doesn't want to do." A tear fell down his cheek when thought of the giri between their clans never being fulfilled.

"We have to think of something," Genma said, clenching his eyes shut in dismay.

"Hmm," Soun hummed and sat in thought. He looked at his old after a good while and asked, "Any ideas yet?"

Genma shook his head. "Not a one," he replied.

A few minutes of thought later, "Anything now?"

**oOOOo**

**To be continued ...**

**Next time ...**

Ranma returns to school. Kuno-sempai gets more than he bargained for when he meets the new Ranma. Principle Kuno gets into the fray also, but Ranma gains an unlikely ally in all of this ... Hinako-sensei!? As school becomes a battlefield the chaos catches the attention of a passing demoness, and when she discovers what has happened to her most beloved mortal hell will quite literally have to fury like a Mara scorned.

Next time in Chapter 4 - "**Samurai, Pineapple Bombs, and Demonesses. Oh my!**"


	4. Chapter 4

_The follow story is a work of fan fiction using characters that are copyrighted and/or trademarked. The purpose of this story is for fan enjoyment only free of charge. All original content is protected by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License._

**oOOOo**

Michael "TheZorch" Haney's

"**Ranma Ascension**"

**oOOOo**

Chapter 4

"**Samurai, Pineapple Bombs and a Demoness. Oh my!**"

"Are you sure you want to go to school so soon?"

Nabiki had voiced the question. The recipient of that question sat across the table from her with a cup in one hand and a large bottle of sake in another. She noticed that he was really downing a lot of sake lately but never showed even the slightest sign of drunkenness. One bottle or two of the rice wine and the fathers were three sheets to the wind, but not Ranma. His appetite hasn't been effected any by his "ascension" into godhood either.

Ranma downed a full glass and let out a satisfied sigh. "Might as well get it over with," he replied. He knew he'd eventually have to go back to school. Belldandy would insist that he continue his education despite the fact that Urd already knew a great deal about a great many things. She hadn't been all-knowing but she did know a lot and he had access to all of her memories. Both the good ones and the bad ones. Luckily the good ones outnumbered the bad ones.

"Kuno-chan is going to go ape-shit over your girl side's new look," she told him. "You know that." His female form hadn't really changed all that much, her face was still the same except for the dark tan, her hair was no longer red but a bright platinum blond, and maybe her bust was slightly bigger. Those strange blue tattoos added an even more exotic look to his cursed form.

Ranma nodded, "That's what I meant." Becoming a god slash goddess didn't effect the curse at all. It didn't really matter to him really, his new personality, a mesh of his old self and the Goddess Urd's, made him comfortable with both forms. And then there were these strange urges ...

Nabiki looked at him with an amused smirk. "Oh I am not going to miss this," she said. And, I'm not going to miss on the opportunity to gather bets on the outcome of such an encounter either.

Soun and Genma weren't at the table. They were in the corner near the shoji doors overlooking the back yard. The shogi board sat untouched between them. Both were still brooding over last night's revelations. There was nothing they could do to get Ranma to do what they wanted. There would be no forcing him to marry any of the Tendo sisters unless he wanted to. Before she and Skuld has left for the train back to Nekomi, Belldandy told several stories to the family of Urd's many exploits before her assimilation with Ranma. They pretty much realized that angering Ranma wasn't healthy, as himself he already had a temper, but adding Urd to the mix was like merging the boy with Akane.

Speaking of Akane, there was also the fact that she has officially withdrawn from the agreement to join the schools. Though Ranma seemed to be forgiving of what she'd done to him, she still wasn't forgiving of herself. The fact that it didn't seem to bother Ranma any that they weren't engaged anymore was also troubling. Genma didn't have the nerve to wake the boy up for morning training either. He remember very clearly how easily Ranma vaporized that concrete ornament in the backyard yesterday.

"I wonder where Akane is," Nabiki wondered out loud. It wasn't like her little sister to sleep in or miss school for no reason. Even when the Hentai Horde was in full swing she still attended school.

"She told me that she wasn't going to school today," Kasumi said when she emerged from the kitchen and began setting the kotatsu for breakfast.

"Oh good grief," Nabiki rolled her eyes and went upstairs.

"You should be going up there to comfort her, boy." Genma groused, it was a momentary memory lapse induced by his need to boss his son around and show him who was in charge. It didn't last long.

Ranma held up two fingers, sparks of lightning flashed up them like a Jacob's Ladder. "What was that oyagi, I couldn't hear you?" he replied nonchalantly. Genma clammed up quickly and went back to sipping his tea. Ranma glanced his way and snorted indignantly.

**oOOOo**

Nabiki didn't bother knocking on Akane's door, she walked right up and slid it open. Never mind that she might be naked, dressing, or doing something naughty. Nabiki knew her little sister well, she knew about Akane's late night finger sessions. And she had the gal to call Ranma hentai. Akane though was doing neither, she was still in bed with the covers pulled up close to her neck and her curtains closed.

"Akane, its time to stop wallowing in your own self pity," Nabiki grabbed for the covers but Akane held them fast.

"I'm not going to school today," Akane groused under the covers.

The Tendo mercenary rolled her eyes. "Stop blaming yourself, you had no idea this was going to happen." she tried to reassure her, but Nabiki knew it was a flimsy argument. She let go of the blankets, she knew how strong her little sister was so it would be impossible for her to pull them away.

Akane sat up and hugged her knees. "I never realized how often I got angry with Ranma over the silliest things until ..." she said wiping a tear from her eye.

"Well, he kind of deserved it most of the time," Nabiki said in her defense.

Akane shook her head. "No, I just didn't have any patience," she said. "With everything going on with Kuno and the boys at school, when daddy engaged me to Ranma and I found out he was really a boy and not a girl it all ... it all sort of ..."

"Overwhelmed you, and all you could do was lash out." said Nabiki. For the first time she was finally starting to understand what made her sister tick. It frightened her a little, she herself played a part in Kuno's obsession with Akane and his eventual challenge to the school which gave birth to the Hentai Horde. It was a miracle something like this hadn't happened sooner to someone else, but that someone would have been dead forever. The consequences of that would have been too much for Nabiki to deal with, her influence only went so far.

"Please, just let me sort this out on my own," Akane pleaded looking thoroughly miserable.

"I guess this means an end to the giri between the Tendo and Saotome clans," Nabiki said as she turned to leave.

"If you want him I won't get in the way," she heard Akane say.

Nabiki couldn't believe what she just heard and looked back at her sister in shock. "Nani?" she gaped at her.

"Daddy will probably transfer the engagement over to you or Kasumi sooner or later," Akane went on sadly. Despite the situation she knew her father and how stubborn he could be. There was no way he was going to give up on his dream for anything.

"But," Nabiki stammered and was actually blushing a little bit. The idea of having Ranma to herself was ... interesting. He was good looking, in both forms. She never admitted it to her family and only told a small select number of friends but Nabiki liked sitting on the fence, so to speak.

"Please go," Akane laid back down and pulled the covers over her head.

Nabiki wanted to tell her not to give up on him but she held her tongue and closed the door. She went to her room, grabbed her school back, her special ledger, and went downstairs. Nabiki was surprised to see Ranma waiting for her at the genkan near the front door with his own book bag. Wait a minute, since when did he carry a book bag. She remembered he had one on the first day he came to the dojo but Kuno destroyed it.

"Lets walk to school together," he said opening the door for her. "We need to talk."

You bet your cute ass we need to talk, Nabiki replied silently as they left the house.

**oOOOo**

News of Ranma's miraculous recovery had made it to Furinken High and the compound of the Kuno clan. The heir of the Kuno fortune stood seething with rage at the thought. The vile sorcerer's survival was indeed evidence of his unearthly origins, there was no longer any doubt. Kuno Tatewaki knew what he had to do. Little did he know he was partially right. He would, however, not be ready to deal with the new Ranma.

**oOOOo**

"You know eventually our parents will try to force the issue of the engagement,"

Nabiki looked over at Ranma, he was uncharacteristically for him walking on the sidewalk next to her. She could see his eyes though quickly shifting around looking in all directions. He was scanning for trouble. She wasn't a martial artist and even she knew danger was in the air. Word of Ranma's recovery has bound to have reached his enemies by now.

"What about Akane?" she asked him. Nabiki knew what buttons to push when it came to Ranma, but this wasn't the same Ranma so she knew she was pushing it a little.

He looked sidelong at her sharply, "What about her?" The look wasn't exactly kind.

"I thought you'd forgiven her," she even heard him say so the other day. He was actually going out of his way to be nice to her, why the anger all of a sudden? She been around them all day yesterday, when did they get into a fight?

"Only to a point," he replied curtly.

Nabiki shrugged, "I guess you have a right to be mad at her a little bit, she did almost kill you." Technically she nearly killed one person and indirectly caused the death of another. Well not really a death since Urd didn't technically die but she wasn't a separate persona anymore because of what Akane did. The whole thing was a bit confusing, even for her.

"I would have just dropped it because she was so distraught over what happened to 'us'," he said referring to the assimilation. "But when your dad got all hyper about imoutochan and Skuld yesterday, she got angry too. She says she wants to change but in reality she hasn't changed at all." Even he knew Akane wasn't going to change overnight into a nicer girl, that was impossible. It was the fact that she got mad so quickly and it took her a while to finally cool down. She didn't yell at him or try to hit him but he could see that same soldering rage in her eyes. That same blind rage he saw the day his life changed forever.

"Saotome, you can't expect her to change overnight," Nabiki grabbed his shoulder making him stop and face her.

She could see the sad look in his eyes when he replied, "I know, and she'll only change as long as we ... aren't ... engaged. With our baka parents always putting pressure on her, she'll never improve." Emotional pressure equaled stress and the engagement has proven to be a a very stressful thing for Akane.

Nabiki sighed, "I guess you're right. Which means ..."

"Exactly," Ranma interjected. "Sooner or later the issue's gonna come up, and the sooner I deal with it the better."

Nabiki laughed and shrugged her shoulders, "You're a kami now, you can do whatever the hell you want. Daddy can't force you to marry one of us."

"That first part is true," he replied then gestured for her to continue their walk to school. "But there's an additional complication."

Nabiki did a Spock Maneuver, "Nani?" What sort of complication? She wasn't aware of anything that would force him to have to fulfill the agreement. At least not anymore.

Ranma replied, "Technically Urd was a part of me since I was six years old. During that time I was one tenth Kami because my soul was sharing her spirit energy, and even a one tenth kami is still considered a kami."

Nabiki shrugged, "What does that have to do with it?"

"A while ago I made a promise to your father that I would eventually fulfill the agreement to join the schools," he explained, which was news to her. "I never said when I would fulfill giri or with whom but I did make a promise. It was back when I went off after that Musk prince."

He stopped and lifted a single finger, "The number one most important rule is that if a Kami makes a promise he and/or she 'must' fulfill it no matter what."

Nabiki didn't understand what the deal was, "But you weren't a kami then."

"I was one tenth kami," he said and saw the look of understanding in Nabiki's eyes. He knew she'd eventually get it, she was a smart girl. If only she put her smarts to work for a better purpose.

"Yeah," she drawled and they continued walking. "I can see where that'd be a problem."

After a bit of silence Ranma spoke up and asked, "So, I was wondering if maybe you'd like the honor." The look on her face was priceless when she stopped in her tracks and gaped at him like a goldfish. Ranma suppressed an urge to burst out laughing, he was trying to serious here.

"Me?" she touched her chest incredulously. This was certainly a surprise, she didn't like surprises. This one was a whopper, although not really all that totally unexpected but still. The idea of being engaged to him had come up from time to time. Sometimes she'd imagine what it would have been like if she hadn't foisted him off onto Akane that first day.

"Kasumi-chan is in love with the doc," he said. "I can't take her away from him, and knowing her she'd go along with an engagement with me despite her love for the doc out of a desire to maintain family honor. I can't do that to her." It kind of touched Nabiki a bit there that Ranma's would actually care that much for Kasumi's feelings.

"You actually want to be engaged to me?" she asked him still unable to fully grasp the fact that Ranma was asking her to marry him. She half expected the world to end right there and then.

He smiled at her, "It could be fun." She watched his eyes scan down her body lingering at her chest and legs for a few seconds each. For some really odd reason she felt very flattered that he found her attractive.

"And painful, for me, when the other girls find out. Unlike Akane I'm not a martial Artist." she grouse folding her arms. She couldn't hold back the fact that her face was turning red no matter how hard she tried.

A dark cloud passed over Ranma's face, "The pain would be theirs." The look on his face promised much suffering. Nabiki had seen Ranma look angry before but something in he eyes told her this was very different. He wasn't just talking, he meant what he was saying.

"Suppose I 'could' go along with this, what do I get out of it?" she asked him, her shrewd businesswoman instincts kicking in. There was lots of potential profit to be had from this relationship.

Ranma shrugged, "An iinazuke who's a kami, what more would you want?" Ask a stupid question ...

"I'll help you make money for the household expenses and then some," he added raising one hand silencing what she was about to say. When Nabiki heard this her mouth fell open.

"Is that a promise, Saotome?" she winked at him. She wondered if he knew exactly how juicy a bait it was that he'd just thrown her. Of course, she was a master at hooking the one who cast the lure in the first place. Nabiki was going to get a quick course in just how well the new Ranma could think fast on his feet outside of a martial arts battle.

"Only if you make a solemn promise on your mother's memory that you'll take our relationship seriously and you won't abuse me for personal gain," he countered. "You treat me with genuine respect and I'll do the same, and perhaps something more will come out of this later on." Ranma knew how much the Tendo girls loved their deceased mother. Even Nabiki, as greedy as she could be sometimes, would never break a promise such as that. Unlike Genma, she wasn't a completely dishonorable and untrustworthy sonuvabitch.

He's got me and he knows it, Nabiki sighed inwardly. She looked back through the years and wondered how long it had been since she'd ever really been on a date. Once, only once, and it was with that guy with the butler puppet on his hand. The one who was a genius at getting what he wanted with other people's money, until he met her. That really didn't count as a date. Ranma had gone along as her protection. Being in her position was a lonely job, she had a reputation to uphold, but wasn't it possible for Ranma to be included in that also?

"Alright, I promise, I guess you've got a iinazuke." she smiled and shook his hand. Nabiki was surprised again when he drew her to him and received a genuinely warm hug. It felt nice being in his arms, surprisingly nicer than she thought it would be. She couldn't hide the bright blush on her face. If this wasn't an example of just how much Ranma has changed, she didn't know what else could possibly serve as one. The old Ranma would never voluntarily do anything like this. This wasn't the old Ranma.

"I didn't mean to twist your arm like that," he said meaning the promise involving her mother. "But I know you, so ..." He let his words trail off.

Nabiki moved back a little but didn't leave his embrace. "Don't apologize, I'm actually pretty proud of you Saotome," she smiled. "And here I thought I was the top scam artist in this town. I think maybe this might work after all." With his arm around her shoulder they continued on their way to school. They didn't speak for a while. It was going to take her a while to get used to this. This new Ranma might actually be nice to have as an iinazuke, she thought to herself.

"Love potions," Ranma said out of the blue.

"Huh?" Nabiki looked at him questioningly.

"We could make a killing selling my love potions to the girls at school," Ranma told her.

Ok, now this really got Nabiki's interest. "You can make love potions," she said incredulously. But she did remind herself that she was talking to a "kami" who had his arm draped around her shoulder.

Ranma produced a small bottle from out of nowhere and handed it to her. It was a small brown glass bottle with a printed label showing a beautiful woman with platinum blond hair and dark ... skin? She looked at the bottle again and than back at Ranma.

"This was you ... her, I mean Urd?" she glanced at him.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah."

"She was beautiful," Nabiki admitted truthfully.

Ranma raised a finger to correct her, "And sexy, never forget sexy!" Nabiki promptly face faltered. Ok, there was no more doubt, this definitely wasn't the same Ranma anymore.

After her recovery they continued down the street and when the gates to the school came into view Nabiki asked, "I've really got to ask, what made you start drinking so much sake?" He downed several bottles yesterday and didn't once act tipsy. She knew of people who could handle their liquor but this was ridiculous.

"Its my power focus," Ranma explained. "For imoutochan its sleep and for Skuld its ice cream."

"Huh," Nabiki muttered contemplatively. She really didn't understand what he meant by power focus but it sounded like it was important. Maybe it was a Kami thing. That was something she was really going to have to get used to, Ranma being a Kami and all. Nabiki had never been overly religious.

She looked at the tiny bottle in her hand. "This stuff really work?" she asked Ranma. He took the tiny bottle and looked at her with a mischievous gleam in his eye. She guessed this might be the Urd influence asserting itself.

"I think a little demonstration is in order," he said then as they looked towards the school gates they both saw Kuno standing there with his ever present bokuto and beside him stood his twisted sister. "And there's our test subjects."

A huge smile slowly appeared on Nabiki's face. She was beginning to like this new Ranma.

**oOOOo**

Habiki Ryoga recognized the skyline before him when he finally crested the hill he was climbing. His heart skipped a beat. His journey has once against lead him to the arms of the woman he loved more than anyone in the world. It had to be destiny. There was no other way to describe it. He had only one obstacle. Nerima was home also to Saotome Ranma. The perpetually lost boy clenched his fists and smiled. Finally, he was going to be able to try the new technique he learned.

"Ranma, this time I am finally going to beat you for good!" he yelled towards the city.

**oOOOo**

"AAAAAAACCHHHOOOO!" Ranma sneezed violently.

"Problem?" Nabiki wondered if kami were able to get colds.

Ranma rubbed his nose, "I think someone's talking about me."

"SAOTOME!" came a cry from the school yard ahead.

Kuno stood at the gates to the school with bokuto in hand in his dark samurai hamaka. Upon hearing Kuno's outburst several other students came rushing to the gates and climbed to the tops of the wall to see. Word had reached the school of Ranma's near-death-experience and miraculous recovery. Now they saw him walking towards the front gates ... with his arm draped around "Nabiki's" shoulder? Nabiki notice them looking in her direction. A part of her wanted to jerk away from Ranma, another part of his made her blush a deep red. Her curiosity about that little bottle of love potion was just too powerful.

"I'm about to do something really bad," Ranma laughed. "I hope father doesn't get too mad at me. Follow my lead." He cupped his hand by Nabiki's ear and whispered. A broad grin crept across her face and she started to laugh.

He didn't take his arm from around Nabiki's shoulder as they approached the gates. He could hear the students talking in hushed tones and know that Nabiki was probably wishing she could crawl into a hole somewhere. The wannabe samurai looked at him with palpable disdain. His eyes flitted over to Nabiki and the look of hatred was very evident. It was no secret that the two were not friends by any short order and that Kuno only had dealings with her so he could get what he wanted. Ranma knew about the photos ever since that day he found pictures of his female self on Kuno about a year ago.

"Not only do you prove your unearthly origins by returning from the dead, but you now accept the company of this lowest of harlots." Kuno spat looking directly at Nabiki. The middle Tendo felt Ranma stiffen at that. She looked at his face and could see the barely restrained rage in his eyes.

Kodachi whipped out her trademark ribbon and fell into a fighting stance. "Vile temptress, unhand my dearest Ranma-sama," Kodachi demanded. "You besmirch him with your very presence." Nabiki could feel Ranma starting to shake now. With as much power as he had, or she suspected that he know had, these two baka were dead if she didn't act.

Nabiki yanked the tiny vile from Ranma's and ran in between the two siblings. She held up the bottle for the two of them to see. "I've finally got it!" she proclaimed. The two Kunos looked at her curiously.

"What is that?" Kodachi asked before her brother could ask.

"Oh, no she has the source of my power," Ranma said in a manner that was obviously fake, but the Kuno siblings weren't keen on subtly. In other words they fell for it.

"Tatewaki-san, if you drink only a drop of this you'll free the fierce tigress and the pigtailed girl from the vile sorcerer's grip," Nabiki said to Kuno. The wannabe samurai's eyes went wide. He went to grab it out of her hand but she pulled it away and shook her finger.

"Now, now, Kuno-chan," she tisked. "I've been trying to get this from him for a long time, and you only need one drop."

Kuno drew out his wallet, "Money is of no object."

"Ten thousand yen," she told him. The baka slapped the bill in her hand and she handed the vile over to him. Kuno let one drop of the liquid drop on his tongue then handed it back to her.

She turned to Kodachi, "The truth is, the vile sorcerer is really that red headed vixen who is trying to steal away your beloved Ranma. He's under her power to do these things, if you drink one drop he'll be free of her forever."

Kodachi made to grab the vile from Nabiki only to have it pulled away by the Tendo mercenary. "Oh, no, I went to a great deal of personal risk to get this," she said.

"Parting with a trifle ten thousand yen is more than worth the price of freeing my beloved from the spell of that vile temptress." Kodachi growled.

She pulled out a ten thousand yen note out of her blouse, received the vile and let a drop touch her tongue. Nabiki took the vile back and put the cap back on. She went back over to Ranma and turned to face them. According to what Ranma had whispered to her she didn't have much more time left.

"Now, look at each other and the curse will be broken," she told them and pretended to act like she was trying to held Ranma from running towards them. "Hurry, I can't hold him back much longer!"

"No, do not look at each other, do not break the curse! Oh no!" Ranma deadpanned faking as if he was struggling against Nabiki's hold. Everyone knew Ranma could have torn through a solid brick wall if wanted to. Little Nabiki wouldn't have been a obstacle. A few students were already doubled over with laughter.

Ranma couldn't believe how easily these two baka were scammed. They had to be the stupidest people he'd ever seen in his entire life. Both his own and Urd's. The Kuno siblings mindlessly did as Nabiki said both thinking that they finally have what they wanted and their chief rivals would finally be out of picture. She knew she'd never win an Oscar for that performance but even a complete moron could have told she was acting.

She heard Ranma whisper something, " 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1."

The two Kuno's swooned slightly, putting their hands to their heads for moment. Both experienced a strange feeling of disorientation for just a moment and then everything came back into pure clarity. Both looked at one another as if seeing each other for the first time in a new light.

"Why have I not realized this sooner," Kuno said as he slid his bokuto into his belt.

"I never have realized this before but," Kodachi said as she put away her ribbon.

"I LOVE YOU!"

Ranma suppressed an urge to laugh his head off as the two siblings rushed one another. They flew into each other's arms and locked lips ... complete with tongue. Screams of shock and scandal echoed across the school yard. There were a few cat calls and a couple of isolated shouts of encouragement. Ranma couldn't help it anymore and doubled over laughing. Nabiki tried to keep up her emotionless mask but even she couldn't take it anymore and soon joined him on the ground. After a while they recovered, look at the two siblings making out in the middle of the school yard, suppressed another bout of uncontrollable laughter and headed for the school building.

"How long will they be like that?" Nabiki asked while still trying to hold back her laughter.

"Oh, in about ... 1, 2 .."

"Brother what are you doing?!" WACK!

"Unhand me twisted sister, these lips are for the tigress Tendo Akane and the Pigtailed Girl!"

"Who are you calling twisted, you deluded imbecile?!" WHAM! BOOM!

"You, my sister of cluelessness!"

"Master, Mistress Kodachi please stop fighting!"

Pretty soon the rest of the students began to file out of the school yard leaving the bickering two alone. Ranma and Nabiki separated as they went to their different home rooms. They agreed to meet one another for lunch later in the day. Nabiki looked at the small vile in her hands when she sat down at her desk. The Kuno's reaction had been immense with just a single drop! It didn't last long like Ranma had told her but she could just imagine how much a while or even half a bottle would last.

"We're going to be stinking rich."

**oOOOo**

If Ranma had trouble saying awake during class before he didn't stand a chance now that he was merged with Urd. Ukyo sat at her desk and noticed curiously Akane's absence. She wondered what happened. To her it didn't really matter one way or the other because Ranma was here in class. Though he was sawing logs like nobody's business. She was a bit afraid that he might soon catch someone's attention.

That someone noticed right away when she could no longer see Ranma's head among the rest of the students listening in on her lecture. Hinako-sensei sighed, she was pleased to see that Ranma was alright. The rumors she heard appeared to been correct, he had been at the hospital for some sort of injury but it was likely blown out of proportion by the students. He certainly didn't look like someone who had been near death to her. That still didn't excuse him for sleeping in class.

"Saotome-san," she called from the front of the class.

A snore was his response. "Saotome-san!" she shouted hoping to wake him.

Against another snore. Instinctively she reached for a fifty yen coin but stopped herself. If he indeed had been either really sick or badly hurt then she couldn't risk hitting him too hard with her special ability. Unlike other people in this school whom she could name she actually cared about the students. Ranma to her was a special case. She knew he had the potential for greatness if only he applied himself more. He'd been the first student to actually defeat her. That impressed her a lot, if he put as much effort into school work that he put into defeating her special technique there would be nothing he couldn't do. Little did she know at the moment that he'd already gone beyond what any normal mortal being can achieve on their own.

"SAOTOME-SAN!"

"WAAAHH!!" Ranma sat bolt upright. Hinako-sensei lowered the bullhorn and walked back to the front of the class with a self-satisfied look on her face. The rest of the class looked at her in surprise, they half expected her to hit him with her coin technique. She always used it on Ranma, but why not this time?

"Please pay attention in my class, Saotome-san." she said while looking straight at him then returned to her lecture.

**oOOOo**

When lunch finally came Ranma grabbed his bento and went out into the school yard looking for Nabiki. He found her sitting under usual tree surrounded by her female cohorts. When she saw him coming she put away her black ledger and beaconed for him to come over. The girls looked at her strangely, since when did they eat lunch with him? She'd neglected to tell them the change in the engagement, she was leaving that for when Ranma showed up. The looks on their faces were going to priceless.

"Boss, why are you calling 'him' over here?" one of the girls asked, her expression dour.

"You got something planned?" another asked her, an eager look in her eyes.

"Hi," Ranma said as he sat down ... next to Nabiki. Curiosity flashed in the girl's eyes suddenly, they figured Nabiki must have something on him to get him to do this. If that were true what sort of profit were they going to make? Better yet, why didn't she tell them what she had planned?

"Ranma, since we're going to spending a lot more time together I think it would be a good idea if you got to know the girls," Nabiki gestured towards the girls. There were five in all, they represented her inner circle, her most trusted subordinates. They all looked at Nabiki with slightly surprised looks.

Ranma noted that a few were actually pretty cute. Nabiki started from left to right, "These are Rei, Mina, Izumi, Katsumi and Innoue."

Rei wore her brown hair short in style similar to Yuka's, she had an innocent "baby face" which made her popular with some of the boys thus making it easy for her to get money from them. Mina kept her long blond hair in a braid, she looked athletic. Basically she was a tomboy and the strong arm of the group. Izumi's hair was pink, her eyes green, and she seemed to always have a happy expression on her face. Beneath that cutesy facade was a girl who was a whiz with numbers and knew how to cheat at almost every kind of card game imaginable without getting caught. Katsumi had the aura of a miko around her which Ranma was able to sense. She was the tallest of the girls and kept her waist length black hair tied back into a pony tail. He'd often seen Katsumi doing fire readings for the students in the school yard, obviously she's had some priestess training. Innoue was quiet and polite, she had dark hair cut in a fashion similar to Akane and she wore glasses which added to her cuteness. She was a small girl, smaller than Ranma's own female half. He'd seen her coming out of the school's computer lab a lot, so she must be the computer expert of the group.

"Uh, boss what's going on here?" Mina asked.

"As of today, Ranma and I are officially engaged." Nabiki came out and told them. She couldn't believe she was actually able to say it but she did. After having some time in class without him around to think on it she was actually starting to like the idea of being engaged to him. She was actually missing his presence in the classroom.

"NANI!" they all five gasped in surprise.

Nabiki raised a finger to calm them. "That's right ladies, and he brings to the table a rather interesting business proposition which I am certain will make us very rich." With that said she takes out the potion bottle and begins to explain its effects omitting the part about Ranma being a kami. She figured they would never believe that part of the story.

"That's what made the Kunos go all loopy this morning?" Innoue inquired pointing at the bottle.

"When aren't they loopy," Rei deadpanned.

"There is a strong aura of power around that bottle," said Katsumi as he held her hands near the bottle.

"Where did you get it, boss?" Innoue asked Nabiki.

They all five knew magic was real. Each had come to terms with the reality of Ranma's curse over the course of working for Nabiki. The idea of a real honest to goodness love potion that actually worked wasn't much of a surprise to them considering all of the other stuff they've seen at Furinken High School.

"From Ranma," Nabiki gestured his way.

Mina looked at him accusingly, "So that's how you got all those girls to chase you."

Nabiki didn't have to look at Ranma to know he was getting mad. This was a totally different Ranma, he probably wouldn't have any problem with hitting a girl. Mina was tough, but she'd be flattened by Ranma.

"No they chase him due to other circumstances," Nabiki corrected her. "And in the future I'd advise against insulting my future husband with false accusations in my presence. I hope I make myself clear on this."

Mina turned pale and looked down at her hands. "Gomen," she said in a softer tone.

"So, where did you get it?" Innoue asked Ranma.

Technically kami weren't supposed to lie, which never stopped Urd any. What Ranma said next wasn't technically a lie but it wasn't the whole truth either. "I found the recipe for it by accident," he told her.

In translation, Urd found the recipe through trial and error over time. Never mind the fact that while testing her new potion she accidentally started a war on Earth which ended with the city of Troy being flattened. Mara would never let her live that one down. The demoness had token one look at the situation and fell over with hysterical laughter.

"Wow, I never figured you to be the type to be interested in making something like this." said Izumi as she examined the bottle.

"Maybe we should tell them," Ranma looked over at Nabiki who just shrugged her shoulders.

"Its you're call Ranma," she replied. This was going to be interesting, she thought to herself. Nabiki wondered if the girls could actually handle the truth.

"Tell us what?"

**oOOOo**

Rei, Mina, Katsumi, Izumi and Innoue stared at Ranma in absolute shock. They were no longer in the school yard. It had become necessary to move their conversation to a more private area so that he could demonstrate for them evidence to his claim. Now he stood in the middle of the empty gym looking at them with a self-congratulatory smile on his face. Behind and above him, with her hands on his shoulders with black and white wings spread wide hovered World of Elegance. The Angel looked upon them with a placid expression. Even Nabiki had been taken aback by the appearance of this strangely beautiful creature. She had no idea that Ranma was carrying something like that around with him.

"Now, are there any doubts now?" he asked them.

All five girls shook their heads while still looking at the Angel that hovered just behind Ranma.

"You can go back now," Ranma said to the apparition behind him and the Angel folded her wings and returned to where she emerged from the small of Ranma's back.

Nabiki pointed a shaking finger at him and asked, "You've been carrying that creature inside of you all of this time?"

"World of Elegance is my angel," he explained. "Only the most powerful of kami have their own angels because they can be very hard to control at times. An angel that runs amok because its master can't control it is a very dangerous thing." He could remember when he got his angel, well it was Urd's memory but to his current perception it was "he" who had gotten it. That had been a rather rough experience. The angel wouldn't come out for him after that until just before Mara pulled that whole Lord of Terror crap on him ... uh ... her. Now the angel came whenever called.

Innoue was the first of Nabiki's inner circle to speak. "But you can control yours," she said.

"Yes I can," he replied with a proud smirk.

"Whoa, Ranma is a kami," Mina thought out loud. "A real honest to goodness kami. This really changes things big time!"

"Yet somehow I sense his divinity isn't exactly all that pure," said Katsumi.

Ranma sighed, "That's because my father was a kami and my mother was a demoness."

Nabiki immediately doubled over laughing. The girls and Ranma looked at her strangely for a moment and Ranma looked like he was starting to get peeved but the Tendo mercenary got a hold of herself and immediately calmed down.

"Gomen, Ranma, its just that Kuno keeps talking about the judgment of heaven and sending you back to hell," she said trying to keep from laughing hysterically. "While the whole time you're actually ... HA HA HA ... a representative of both ... HA HA HA HA!"

Ranma nervously scratched the back of his head, "Actually I never thought of it that way."

"So, this Urd, is she dead now?" Izumi asked him.

Ranma shook his head in response, "No, like I said I'm both Urd and Ranma combined. I guess I could call myself Urd but I'm sticking with Ranma. In some ways ya could say the old Urd and Ranma are gone, but they didn't die because they became 'me'."

"Ah, boss, I think we got trouble coming this way," everyone turned towards Mina who had moved to the door of the gym. She went to investigate a sound outside and opened the door just enough to look outside. What she saw she didn't like one bit.

Nabiki asked her, "What is it?"

"A whole bunch of students are outside the door and Principle Kuno is coming this way," Mina replied.

The sound of a hand slap filled the large empty room. They looked at Ranma running his hand down his face in exasperation. "Oh great, now I gotta deal with pineapple breath." he groaned.

"Open the door, the sooner I deal with this the better," he turned Mina's way. The girl looked at Nabiki who gave her a stern look that said "do it or else". I guess whatever he says for now on will carry the same weight as the boss' orders, she thought to herself. She did as he asked and soon the gym began to fill with students.

Ranma could hear with his sharp hearing what they were saying. Most were curious to see what the principle would do, most just wanted to see Ranma bash the coconut brained baka into unconsciousness, but many others were asked questions of how did he survive if his so called injuries had been so supposedly horrible as the rumors said that'd been.

If he was going to keep this from getting out of control Ranma knew he had to deal with this now. Having the palm tree baka involved just complicated things a little.

"Hey keiki, me got some questions for ya, yah." the so-called principle in sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt said as he strolled into the gym.

"What do you want, coconut head?" Ranma groaned.

"Me hears dat you wuz on the death bed, me hears dat you get all manglied up by dis machine and the docs can no put ya back together," Principle Kuno babbled as he walked around Ranma. "But ere you is, all bedda and no scratches. Now how that be, huh?"

Ranma laughed, technically he wasn't supposed to lie, but he could bend the truth just a little bit. "I guess its a miracle." he said shrugging his shoulders.

"Da Big Kahuna be tinkin dat you be some monsta or ghost," Principle Kuno whirled around and pointed his finger in Ranma's face. "The real Ranma be pushin up the daises, yah." This sent a murmur through the assembled students, the seeds of doubt had been sown despite the ineptitude of the one of planted them.

"The only monster here is you," Ranma roared in anger. "You coconut headed freak of nature!"

"I see, so the vile sorcerer Saotome has indeed finally fallen," he heard Kuno Tatewaki laugh as he passed through the crowd. "And thus the denizens of hades hath sent this doppleganger in his stead to further torment us." Ranma rolled his eyes at the clueless wannabe samurai as he drew his bokuto and stood off against him next to his father.

"Ah, it warms da Big Kahuna's heart dat his boy be standin by his side like dis," Principle Kuno choked up.

"Stand with the Principle of this fine establishment of learning against this hellish evil I shall," Kuno swaggered. "BUT I STILL REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE MY FATHER!"

"Man you two baka are really pathetic," Ranma walked towards the pair. Nabiki saw the look in his eye and immediately start to step back. She'd seen that look before only one other time. The other girls noticing their boss moving away did the same.

"SILENCE SPAWN OF HADES," Kuno cried holding his sword high. "THIS DAY THE WRATH OF HEAVEN IS UPON THEE! EN GUARD!" He rush at Ranma just as the baka beside him pulled out a pineapple bomb.

A smirk crossed Ranma's lips, "Wrath of heaven, eh?" His clenched fist at his side opened and tongues of lightning traveled up his fingers like on a Jacob's Ladder. Soon the tiny flickers of lightning became a huge ball of energy cupped in his hand.

"YOU WANT TO SEE THE WRATH OF HEAVEN," Ranma shouted back at Kuno and thrust his hand forward just as the baka reached him. "BEHOLD THE 'REAL' THING! DESTRUCTIVE THUNDER!"

ZZZZZOOOOORRRRCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!

Kuno stood there dancing like a puppet on a string and let out tiny gasps of pain until the torrent of shocks subsided. The lightning continued to wash over him making him jerk violently until they too faded. He stood there for a long moment, his hair standing up on end, his clothes charred and burned in places, and gray smoke rising from his head. The rest of the room was deftly quiet. Nobody know what to think of this, they'd seen Ranma do some amazing things before but this was way over the top even for him.

Kuno tried to speak but it just came out as a sputter, "... now you ... know ... the ... power ... of ... Kuno Tatewaki ... why is ... the gym ... spinning? Ugh." THUD!

"You're next," Ranma eyed the principle with a nasty grin on his face. The look in his eyes promised pain unimaginable.

"Ah, da Big Kahuna suddinly memba he gotta go sort his hula skirt collection, yah!" Principle Kuno bolted for the door tossing his pineapple bomb behind him. Ranma deftly deflected it and sent it in a direction where it would do the least bit of harm when it went off, then he sprinted off at the retreating palm tree haired man. Before he could catch up to the principle Ranma felt a presence, his danger sense went off like a bullhorn and he leapt high in the air. Below he heard a loud piping voice.

"Anything Goes Ten Yen Shiatsu!" SLURP! THUD!

He alighted next to a fully adult Hinako-sensei who was still standing with her hand out stretched with the coin between her fingers. To his surprise she looked at him, smiled once, then walked over to the fallen principle. She kneed down next to him with a very stern look on her beautiful face. A couple of boys standing nearby fell over from massive nosebleeds since her tiny skirt wasn't able to hide her panties at certain angles.

"Principle Kuno, as a dully appointed special investigator of the Tokyo Municipal School Board I officially relieve you of your duties as principle of Furinken High starting now." she said in a loud voice so everyone could hear her. Loud gasps came from the assembled students, even a few cheers of joy.

Kuno lifted up his head and slurred, "Wat you say? You can no do dat. You work for dat Big Kahuna."

"As a member of the Teacher's Union I work for the Tokyo Board of Education," Hinako-sensei corrected him. "About a month ago I went to the school board with a number of complaints about you and discovered an entire filing cabinet filled with complaints filed against you dating back several years. After hitting nothing but stopping block after stopping block for a week by members of the board I went to one of the school system's biggest contributors. That would be the Fukuyama clan, and they used their influence to open an official investigation against you with me as its sole investigator with full cart blanch authority."

"Holy shit," Ranma heard Nabiki say out loud.

He learned towards her and asked, "What does cat branch mean?"

"Cart blanch," she corrected him. "It means that whatever she says goes and the school board has no say in it what-so-ever."

To add salt to the wound Hinako-sensei added, "I've taken many of the more serious complaints and brought them to the attention of the local authorities, and low and behold I discover that the ICPO has warrants out for your arrest in the United States for suspicions of child abuse and the local city prosecuting attorney would also like to have a word with you also."

Four big, burly men in Nihon Police uniforms filed through the crowd of students, picked up the weakened principle, slapped him in hand cuffs and carried him away. As they left the students were quiet for a moment, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Principle Kuno is gone," one of them said.

"PRINCIPLE KUNO IS GONE!" another cried out and a deafening cheer rose from the students. Friends hugged friends, some cried with joy, a few students found themselves being tossed up and down in celebration and the rest rushed to surround their savior Hinako-sensei.

Ranma strolled over to Nabiki who had a strange smirk on her face. "Something tells me you knew about this before hand." said Ranma.

"Lets us just say that Hinako-sensei wouldn't have been able to pull this off without a little helping in finding the right allies to support her cause." she replied.

"This Fukuyama clan," he looked at her with a questioning nod.

"They weren't easy to find, apparently they keep their donations to the school board very hush-hush if you know what I mean," Nabiki explained. "I think it has something to do with their son."

Ranma tilted his head to the side, "Huh?"

She shrugged, "Lets just say he makes Happosai look like Mother Teresa and Buddha combined."

**oOOOo**

Somewhere in another part of Tokyo a young man with blond hair and dressed in an all white boy's school uniform let out a huge sneeze.

Fukuyama Kazuharu rubbed his nose and sneeze again. "Hmmm, some lovely young lady must be talking about me. Maybe its that luscious young Koyomi or maybe that gorgeous Miharu!" he said out loud. He turned his attention to one of the girls in the classroom, a very pretty young girl with brown hair and excessively generous attributes.

"Or maybe Kirie is having dirty thoughts about me, maybe my manliness is finally breaking through that steel trap will of hers and now she wants me instead of that Chibi-nari" he drooled.

Kojima Kirie leapt from her seat and raced toward Fukuyama's seat at the back of the class.

"GO LIVE OUT YOUR DELUSIONS ... IN HELL!"

WHAM!!! THUD!!!

**oOOOo**

With the situation finally winding down the vice-principle who now suddenly found himself promoted to full principle declared that the students could have the rest of the day off. The staff planned to have a major party to celebrate Principle Kuno's departure and eventually extradition to the United States. Ranma and Nabiki took this opportunity to make an exit before the students could swarm them with questions. For one thing they were very interested in wondering why he was hanging out with Nabiki so much today. Ukyo was also pretty curious as to what the heck was happening between them. She knew about Ranma being a kami so the lightning didn't shock her much but when Hinako-sensei entered the picture she got floored.

The cheering of the students in the gym carried out into the street. A certain someone heard the commotion, felt the discharge of power and came to investigate. She watched as the mortal of her dreams strolled out of the front gate of the school ... with a girl on his arm?!

"What the hell is this," she cried revealing herself to mortal eyes without realizing it. "Why are you hanging off of my Ranma-sama?!"

Ranma knew that voice, he knew that voice and he dreaded ever remembering it. Rivals he could handle, amorous girls he could handle, but this person belong to a whole different category. She wasn't someone he could just zap or blast into unconsciousness, well maybe he could, but this person had the power to back up whatever he could dish out and then some. He's almost totally forgotten a certain "fact" which existed at the back of Urd's memories. The memory that a certain rival who just happened to be a Demoness First Class Unlimited had a crush ... on HIM!

"Oh shit," Ranma groaned and he pulled Nabiki over to his other side to get himself between her and the blond demoness.

Nabiki looked at the woman who just popped in out of nowhere. She was dressed in a weird outfit that look both gaudy and sort of almost looked like a uniform. She had cleavage but nothing too impressive and her face was pretty but not overly so. Her blond hair was waist length, and like Ranma she sported strange tattoos on her face. These though were very different. While Ranma's soft and nonthreatening this woman's facial tattoos were angular and dangerous looking. It gave the impressive that she was always pissed off, which wasn't too far from the truth.

"R ... Ranma, who is that woman?" Nabiki asked pointing at the blond who was staring daggers at her.

"Just say where you are," he replied. "She's a Demoness First Class Unlimited." He felt Nabiki's grip on his arm stiffen. A demon, a real demon?!

Mara's eyes went wide with surprise, "Huh? How do you know that?"

"I see you finally reconstituted yourself," Ranma said to her. "I guess mom must be hard up for good workers or she wouldn't have let you come back to the mortal plane so soon after you screwed up the whole Lord of Terror thing."

Mara slammed her fist into her open palm and raged, "It was all that Belldandy's fault, that no good do gooder goddess!"

"My guess is you've been demoted down to second class," Ranma smiled at her.

"Damn that Hild! Can't she realize my genius, I was so close ..." she froze and looked at him with a look of shock and hurt on her face. "... there is no way for you to know that."

"Take a good close look at me Mara," Ranma told her. The demoness complied, for a moment she looked at him, licked her lips a bit, then jumped back with a look of absolute shock on her face.

"No, I can't believe this, I won't believe it," she cried with tears pouring through her eyes. "How could this have happened?! No, please no!" She fell to her knees and start to weep uncontrollably.

"Sorry, I was kinda like dying so she had to finish the merger," he explained to her while almost feeling sorry for the poor creature, almost.

Mara stopped crying and a rage filled look appeared on her face, "Who did it?"

"Who did what?" he asked her. He didn't like where this was going.

"Who tried to kill my Ranma-sama?" she asked in a tone dripping with venom. "I will not rest until I've found the fool who dared harm him. I will destroy them! Crush them! Make them pay!!!"

Nabiki sighed, "Why do I get the feeling that things are about to get really complicated?"

**oOOOo**

**To be continued ...**

**Next time ...**

Things at school have calmed down because of Hinako-sensei but Ranma's life has just gotten really complicated with the arrival of the blond bitch from down under, and I don't mean Australia. Mara finds herself torn between her unnatural love for the boy Ranma and her hatred for her perpetual rival Urd. Can the Tendo sisters handle a new house guest who is a "true" demon? Just how far can Kasumi's patience and kind nature be pushed before it breaks? Will Nerima survive?!

Next time in chapter 5 - "**Look Who's Coming To Dinner or If You Can't Stand The Heat Get Out of the Lake of Fire!"**

Notes:

I guess you can think of the extra long length of this chapter as my apology for being gone so long and as my early Christmas present to all of you who've been begging me to continue this story. Rest assured that its over over yet and more is one the way. I've got an update cycle going that I want to try out and I should be able to get new chapters of all of my fic out a little bit faster for now on. I hope.

The ICPO or International Criminal Police Organization is also know as INTERPOL. INTERPOL is the world's largest international police organization, with 186 member countries. Created in 1923, it facilitates cross-border police co-operation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime. To be a member of INTERPOL you must already be a police officer because you cannot join them ... they choose you and only the best are chosen to join their ranks.

If my next chapter previews sound like the next episode previews from the "Rocky & Bullwinkle Show" you're right. I'm a fan of the show, it was hilarious and little ahead of its time being that it was a political satire cartoon in the 60's and all. Anyway, I hoped you liked this chapter and from me to you please have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


	5. Chapter 5

_The follow story is a work of fan fiction using characters that are copyrighted and/or trademarked. The purpose of this story is for fan enjoyment only free of charge. All original content is protected by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License._

**oOOOo**

Michael "TheZorch" Haney's

"**Ranma Ascension**"

**oOOOo**

Chapter 5

"**Look Who's Coming To Dinner **

**or If You Can't Stand The Heat Get Out of the Lake of Fire!"**

Nabiki stuck extra close to Ranma as they walked home. She often prided herself as the only one in the household who was able to keep her cool no matter the situation. Ranma's arrival has certainly brought its fair share of excitement to the Tendo home. Crazy situations were the norm most of the time. The only other member of the household who didn't go ape-shit when something hit the fan was Kasumi. Though she seemed oblivious to the happenings around her. Nabiki knew differently. Truth be told, Kasumi was much smarter and more observant than she often let on.

Rarely, very rarely, did the middle Tendo sister loose her cool or actually get scared. Ok, there was that time she and her sisters thought someone was breaking into the house, and later it turned out to be a piglet. Of course, Nabiki figured out a long time ago "who" that piglet was. She had an educated guess as to why Ranma wasn't spilling the beans. May heaven have mercy on Ryoga, because when Akane finally wises up to the truth mercy won't be in her vocabulary. Oh, there was that other time they all thought Kasumi had turned psychopathic on them, when they all went out to dinner, and forgot to invite her. How could they have ever doubted their sweet, kind hearted older sister. Even when she was possessed by that escaped oni she wasn't really dangerous. Somehow Kasumi made being evil look cute.

No, rarely did something truly frighten Tendo Nabiki … until now.

She held tight to Ranma's arm. Grasped it with both arms and held him close to her side. If someone in the neighborhood stared at them she didn't really care. Ranma on his part didn't seem to mind either. That was a pretty far cry from the old Ranma, who shied away from any close contact with a girl. If any of the other iinazuke saw her like this there would be World War III, but she wasn't as concerned about that as she was about the person walking beside them. That is, if you could really classify the blond as a person. She looked human enough, but Nabiki knew better. Her experience with Ranma, the curses, and all of the other insanity that surrounded him taught her one very important lesson … appearances were often "very" deceiving.

All she knew was this person was named Mara. Ranma called her a demon. Considering the fact that Ranma was now an honest to goodness Kami added a great deal of credibility to that statement. The way he put himself between her and Nabiki also added to it. Ranma was always protective of girls even if he had often been afraid of intimacy. He was treating this woman like he often did his most volatile opponents. Opponents like Pantyhose Taro and that Prince Herb guy Akane had told her about. She never met the Musk Prince/Princess, and was pretty glad she never did.

The demoness was seething with rage. Nabiki saw her look over at Ranma periodically. Every time she did she both got angrier and angrier. She got the impression the "woman" was being torn by two contrasting desires. As they walked home Ranma explained to Nabiki in hushed tones how the former first-class, unlimited demoness, now second-class, unlimited became infatuated with him due to all of the chaos that surrounded him. He, as in Ranma, had been unaware of this, but Urd did and often teased Mara over it. The demoness supposedly hated humans, and here she was falling in loved with one. The two contrasting desired turned out to be her love for Ranma and her completely hatred for Urd.

With Ranma and Urd now joined as one being Mara didn't know whether to blast him to bits or drag him off somewhere secluded and rid him like his namesake.

"Why are we taking her home?" Nabiki asked Ranma with a whisper.

He looked over at the demoness and whispered in rely, "She already knows where I live, if we ran and somehow lost her she'd eventually show up at the dojo anyway."

"But, what about Akane?" Nabiki worried.

"Let me worry about that, I won't let Mara hurt her," he reassured her.

Mara stopped, grabbed her long hair and let out a blood curdling scream of frustration. The other two didn't stop to look back and stopped only when Mara ran in front of them. The demoness eyed Nabiki with an uncomfortably hostile stare. Ranma moved her behind him and way from Mara.

"Under normal circumstances I applaud your underhanded dealings Tendo Nabiki," the demoness pointed her finger at the Tendo mercenary. "But when you use them on my Ranma-sama I take great exception!"

"What are you rattling on about now," Ranma groused.

Mara looked into his eyes, they flashed back and forth between adoration and hatred. It showed just how severely conflicted the demoness' emotions were. "She's got something on you, doesn't she, that's why you're letting her get so close to you." she accused turned her eyes to the middle Tendo sister.

"Nabiki is my iinazuke," he came right out and said shocking Nabiki with how casually he was able to admit it. Getting used to his new Ranma certainly was going to take some time.

Mara looked confused. "Huh?!"

She leaned forward showing off her generous cleavage and looked at Nabiki. "I thought you were engaged to that little psychopathic dick tease," she growled.

Nabiki smirked, she'd heard other women who were after Ranma call Akane all kinds of different names but this was a first. "Psychopathic", well that might actually be partially accurate of the old Akane before the incident, but "dick tease"? A dick tease by definition actually tries to get the attention of boys only to deny them "access" when they get close enough. Akane may be many things but she's certainly not a dick tease. A flirt, whether she realizes it or not, certainly. Besides, if Nabiki's guess was right Akane's "interests" lay in a different direction.

**oOOOo**

The trio arrived at Tendo-ke and went straight to the family room after leaving their shoes at the genkan. Soun and Genma were in their usual spot on the back porch sucking down sake and playing/cheating at Shoji. Neither of them noticed Ranma and Nabiki's guest. The leather clad blond sat brooding up a storm that would have impressed the old Akane. She was torn between her complicated "frienemy" relationship she often had with Urd and her puppy-love crush she had for the chaos nexus. They were one and the same now, thus she was torn. What she wasn't indecisive about what she was going to do to the person who made their merger possible. Oh, she was thinking of some really creative ways to torment the fool who hurt her Ranma-sama. Oh, yes, she was going to make them see hell. Quite literally actually.

If Ranma was worried he didn't show it. Akane had yet to come home from wherever she went, and the fact she wasn't there when they arrived was sort of a good thing. Ranma was certain Mara would suspect her as the most likely suspect. He had no intention of letting Mara hurt Akane, at least not in any serious non-reversible manner. He'd already forgiven Akane for what happened. She was making an effort to change, yes she slipped up once, but overall she was making an effort and that's what really mattered. Taking the pressure of the engagement off of her was the best way to help her. Now he had to make sure she lived long enough to make herself into a better person.

Nabiki wasn't sure what to think. She had a goddess and a demoness sitting in her family's house. That alone would have been enough to make most people go mad. But, weird shit like this was par for the course where Ranma was concerned. Chaos seemed to follow him like it was a natural part of his body. It was a palpable force which exerted itself at random times, often in ways which usually lead to Ranma getting nailed with a mallet, Ranma gaining a new iinazuke, Ranma gaining a new rival/enemy, or Akane getting kidnapped by the villain of the week. That last one hadn't happened in a long while, so something had to happen to balance things out. Yes, the rule of law in Nerima-ku was if hell wasn't breaking loose it just meant the tsunami hadn't hit yet.

"Ara, who is our guest?"

Mara gasped, she had no idea Belldandy was here. It took just a short glance at Kasumi to see she wasn't that annoying goody two-shoes goddess, but the aura of peace and calm the mortal was giving off was pretty unsettling. If Kasumi noticed the blond's reaction she didn't seem to show it.

"Mara, Kasumi," Ranma waved back and forth between the two women. "Kasumi, Mara."

Kasumi gave their guest a happy closed-eye smile, the kind Belldandy was famous for and it made the demoness shudder. "Would you care for some tea?"

"Yes please," said Ranma before Mara could speak. Nabiki, always observant didn't miss Mara's expression and smirked. She guessed at where the demoness' apprehension was coming from. Her big sister and a certain kind-hearted goddess had very similar demeanors. If this demoness knew Urd then it stood to reason she also knew Belldandy. If there was one thing Nabiki was good at it was putting two and two together. She was no fool, and Mara's discomfort was funny.

Kasumi headed straight for the kitchen. "Alright, I'll have it ready in a moment." she said over her shoulder.

"What are you looking at?" Mara gazed at Nabiki with a look that promised pain.

The Tendo mercenary didn't bat and eye. "Nothing at all," she said. "Ranma, wouldn't you say Kasumi is a lot like your imotochan?" Ranma nodded.

"Yeah, she's a lot like Belldandy." he replied. He knew where she was going with this. He knew the demoness never really could handle Belldandy's kind, cheerful and caring nature. It made him feel pride in his iinazuke, she was already figuring out which buttons to push on Mara. Of course, he was an expert at pushing Mara's buttons or Urd had been at least.

"Alright, where's the mallet bitch?" Mara demanded. Kasumi came in with their drinks and sat them on the kotetsu table before going back into the kitchen, she told them dinner would be ready in twenty minutes.

"How should I know, I ain't her keeper," Ranma said taking a sip of his tea.

Nabiki did the same and made no effort to volunteer any information. "If I find out she's the one who caused this she's dead!" Mara threatened, her eyes glowing red.

Ranma sighed, he knew when Mara was seriously pissed. Ok, Mara was almost always pissed except when things were going her way. That was also just before things went out of control. Most of Mara's schemes usually ended up blowing up in her face, literally. The demoness was not immune to Murphy's Law. Her schemes usually ended up being like a giant fan sitting at the top of a hill, turned on full blast and a horde of monkeys are at the bottom armed and ready to hurl with Murphy on the sidelines eager to watch the brown, stinky carnage. That wasn't to say the demoness wasn't dangerous. Oh she was dangerous, just none too smart, and that usually wasn't a good combination.

"I'm home!"

Those words were like the shot heard around the world. Tendo Akane hadn't made it one foot into the family room before a leather clad blond stranger jumped up and pointed a shaking finger straight at her.

"YOU!" Mara snarled.

"Huh?!" the youngest Tendo just blink-blinked at the busty blond. The fact that she'd been sitting next to Ranma hadn't registered in her mind yet. She was too preoccupied with the fact said blond was now holding two fireballs in her hands. It wasn't like it really matter anyway, she wasn't engaged to him anymore.

"TENDO AKANE PREPARE TO DIE!!!"

"What the hell did I do to you and who the hell are you anyway?" Akane shouted back, her anger growing by leaps and bounds.

"Ranma, why is your girlfriend threatening my little girl?!" Soun's demon head demanded. Ranma didn't flinch though. That technique did nothing to him anymore but annoy him. He raised a finger, zapped the inflated apparition making it fly around like a popped balloon and calmly took another sip of his tea.

"Why oh why must I have such an ungrateful son!" Genma sobbed before a ball of water that emerged from the pond hit him upside the head turning him panda. He looked over at his son in time to see him lower his hand, the tip of his middle finger still glowing slightly from the spell he just cast.

"YOU DID THIS!!!" Mara yelled pointing at Ranma. "BECAUSE OF YOU THEY'RE LIKE THIS!!!"

Nabiki tapped him on the shoulder. "Ranma?" she looked over at her sister worriedly. She didn't believe for a minute that he'd allow Mara to hurt Akane but it didn't mean she still wasn't worried. Mara was a demon after all and Akane just an ordinary human.

"It was a mistake," Akane said meekly. "I never intended to hurt him, them, I just got so angry and I didn't think. I did something horrible, it cost two people so much but despite what I did he forgave me. But, I don't really deserve his forgiveness. I don't even deserve his love." She looked away, a stray tear falling down her cheek.

"So you admit it," said Mara, her eyes growing angrier.

Akane replied, "Yes, I admit it, its time I started taking responsibility for my actions." Ranma smiled, this indeed progress for her. He stood up and put his hand on Mara's shoulder.

"Let it go," he told her.

"NEVER!" the demoness cried but before she could strike with her fireballs Ranma snapped his fingers and the radio sitting next to the television switched on. The monkeys took aim ...

Welcome to the jungle  
We got fun 'n' games  
We got everything you want  
Honey we know the names  
We are the people that can find  
Whatever you may need  
If you got the money honey  
We got your disease

… and they left fly while Murphy laughed his ass off! Mara's fireballs fizzled out and she started dancing in the middle of the family room. Nabiki and Akane stared at her in disbelief. One second the leather clad bimbo looked angry enough to tear the head off a lion and the next she was head banging to Guns N' Roses. Ranma started laughing his head off and the father's looked at him as if he's suddenly grown a third head.

"Why you," Mara groused as she danced around the room. "Turn it off Urd! Turn it off now!" She bounded and twirled around the room banging her head making her long blond hair fly.

Ranma regained control of himself and said, "Call me Ranma now, and I'll turn it off if you promise to control yourself." He noticed the two Tendo sisters looking at him. Nabiki's expression demanded explanation.

"Whenever Mara hears rock n' roll she starts to dance uncontrollably." he explained.

Akane replied, "That's stupid, why does she do that?" She watched the blond really get into the chorus of the song moving her body faster making her large assets bounce. It took some effort for her to tear her eyes away.

"She's a demoness second class unlimited," he said nonchalantly. Which made Akane's eyes nearly bug out of her head. Kasumi looked out of the kitchen to see what was going on and cheered and clapped as she watched the blond dance around. The fathers reacted just about as bad if not worse. They heard "demon", immediately thoughts of the "Master" hit them and suddenly made themselves scarce. Ranma watched the two cowards run off.

"Make it stop, mommy make it stop!!!" Mara cried as the radio transitioned into an Alice in Chains tune. Her eyes spun and twirled with dizziness from her frantic dancing.

"A demoness, as in from hell, fire and brimstone and all that?" Akane asked looking at the dancing woman in awe. It wasn't too hard to believe, Ranma was a kami after all in both male and female forms.

"Nifelhelm," he corrected her. "Its called Nifelhelm, not hell, and its a world of ice not fire." Ranma snapped his fingers again and the radio switched off. Mara, exhausted, collapsed to the floor huffing and puffing.

"Oh my, that was quite entertaining Mara-san." Kasumi cheered before going back into the kitchen. The demoness, still dizzy, just grumbled to herself about Belldandy clones.

Ranma turned to her. "Now will you behave or would you like some more," he held up his hand, fingers poised to snap again.

"That was a dirty trick," the demoness accused as she slowly got back to her feet which where still a bit shaky.

Ranma gave her a Kasumi-esque smile. "Yes I know,"

Nabiki couldn't take it anymore and flopped onto her back laughing. The demoness looked so hilarious dancing around the room, she couldn't handle it. "Laugh it up Vader hair!" Mara groused.

"Hey, at least I'm not wearing half a cow." Nabiki laughed sitting up and taking a sip of her tea.

Ranma laughed, "That's a good one, I'll have to remember it." He gave his iinazuke a thumbs up, took his seat and then took a drink of his tea.

"Excuse me, but why is their a demon in my house?" Akane demanded now that the initial shock of the encounter was finally over. She stood staring daggers into the blond with her hands on her hips, one fist was holding Mallet-sama which had manifested there on its own.

"She has a crush on me, the guy me, cause I'm a chaos nexus," Ranma explained, but that just puzzled the angry girl and Nabiki both.

Akane blink-blinked. "A chaos nexus?"

"A wonderfully rare jewel," Mara said almost swooning. "A mortal around which the ebb and flow of the chaotic energies of the universe converge and become a howling, broiling maelstrom! Oh the beauty of such a roaring hurricane of chaos! The incredible sound is like a dark under-worldly symphony, a chorus of maddening power blasting into the sky! Oh, yes!!!! Ahhhh!!!!!" The woman closed her eyes, hugged herself and shuddered with a beaming smile on her face.

"Did she just orgasm?" Nabiki said more then asked a bit shocked. That took effort, with all the crap that happened around Ranma she stopped being shocked a long time ago.

Akane scowled, "She's a pervert and a demon!" To Ranma it looked like Mallet-sama just got two sizes bigger. Akane in anti-pervert mode was almost unstoppable. He imagined hearing the Terminator theme song in his head as he watched the youngest Tendo sister stalk up to the swooning demoness.

Mara looked up just in time to see the hammer incoming.

"HENTAI NO BAKA!" SLAM!!!!

Mara went flying out of the family room and slammed back first into the privacy wall leaving an indent. She stuck there for several minutes stunned by the ki enhanced blow. Akane crossed her arms and turned away sticking her nose in the air with a huff.

"Nice backhand, but you would have gotten better force if you just twisted your waist a bit on the up swing." said Ranma. Akane blushed and thanked him. Nabiki muttered something about martial artists and rolled her eyes. Kasumi did her usual "oh my" and went back to finishing dinner.

A few minutes later Mara shook her head to clear it and began pulling herself from the wall. "Ok beotch," she growled. "ITS SO ON!" Summoning her fireballs again the demoness snarled and hurled herself at Akane. The youngest Tendo sister let out an eep and ran for it. The two started racing around the room in some weird parody of a Scooby-Doo cartoon chase scene.

"Oh good grief!" Ranma sighed, got up and summoned a magic circle. A tanuki statue rose up from the center the circle just as Akane ran by. Mara slammed it into it, not that she was in a condition to really notice it. Arches of what looked like electricity hit her and she screamed for a few minutes before falling over. She twitched on the floor, gray smoke rising from her body.

Ranma explained, "Mara's biggest weakness is good luck charms." It wasn't Bushido to tell others about an enemy's secrets but the Urd side of him didn't care so much about adhere to that ancient code anymore. All it had ever done for him was cause him trouble in the past anyway. Nabiki pondered this, she wasn't all that superstitious but did keep a rabbit's foot in her purse. She smiled as she finally now had a legitimate reason for having the thing.

"Now behave or go away," Ranma said to the demoness when it looked like she was recovering. "You can stay for dinner but I'm not letting you hurt Akane." The demoness climbed to her feet and went to the kotetsu. Akane also went to the table and the two sat there staring daggers at one another.

Mara sipped her tea. "Damn, it even tastes like Belldandy's!" she groused.

"I want your promise you will not do anything to directly harm Akane," Ranma stared at the demoness. The expression on his face was one Mara was familiar with. It was often the same look Urd gave her many times. "Promise," he said again.

"Fine, fine, I give my word as a demoness I won't do anything to harm one hair on her head." Mara relented with a dismissive wave and went back to sipping her tea.

Nabiki whispered, "A lot of good a promise from a demon will do."

"Remember what I said about promises and Kami?" Nabiki nodded at him. "Well its the same for demons, if they make a promise they have to keep it. Don'tcha Mara-chan." He looked over the brooding blond and did his best Belldandy/Kasumi closed eye smile. All it did was annoy her.

**oOOOo**

Dinner thankfully went by without any complications. Mara, good to her word, behaved herself. The fathers stayed a good distance from the woman who brooded and moaned under her breather about having to keep dammed promises. She occasionally shared with Ranma while Akane occasionally threw daggers at the woman with her eyes. At the start of dinner Mara had complimented Kasumi on her cooking. She compared it to and said it was better than Belldandy's. Ranma felt Kasumi was a very excellent cook, but Bell's was still better in his opinion. Both women put their heart, soul and love in whatever they cooked and to him that was all that really mattered in the end.

"Well, I should be going," Mara sighed, taking the last sip of a cup of sake Kasumi had brought to the table for dinner. "Got mortal to corrupt to the dark side and all that jazz. You know how it is." The fathers eeped with fear and grabbed each other like frightened schoolgirls.

"Aww, and here I thought you could stay for desert," Ranma said sarcastically. Glad to see the demoness was about to go. He knew he could take her in a fight if it came down to that but he'd rather not put too much more on the girls for the time begin.

Kasumi quickly got up and went to the kitchen. "Ara, I almost forgot about the desert." Nabiki just rolled her eyes. Sometimes her sister pulled off that oblivious act "way" too well.

"Sorry, but I've got to check in with the office anyway," Mara replied getting up from the kotetsu. She went to the back porch and looked around at the yard.

"See you around Ur … I mean Ranma-sama," the blond purred before stepping out into the yard.

Ranma replied, "Say hello to mother for me." He knew the reaction that would get. Mara contorted with an exaggerated cringe. The subject of Hild always did that to the former demoness first class. It put a smile on Ranma's lips to see that at least hadn't changed. Though, inwardly he was worried. Mom would indeed come to visit, and sometime soon. That was going to be an interesting day. If the fathers cringed and whimpered like little schoolgirls when just a regular run-of-the-mill demoness was around what would they do if the Mistress of Nifelhelm herself came over for dinner?

"I'll do that," Mara said over her shoulder as she summoned a gate. It appeared as a ring of runes and other patterns on the ground, which she stopped into the middle of and descended into. As she vanished the blond threw one last eye dagger at the youngest Tendo who threw it right back.

"This isn't over mallet bitch," said Mara just before vanishing.

When Mara was gone Akane slapped her palms against the kotetsu making all of the dishes jump briefly. "Who the hell does that bitch think she is?" she growled, her battle aura showing.

Ranma didn't blame her for being mad. At least Mara's presence brought the girl out of the deep depression she'd been in that morning. He didn't fail to notice that not once did Akane get mad at him. That was a good sign. She didn't seem all that concern that Mara sat next to him either. Also a very good sign.

Nabiki looked at Ranma curiously, something he said bothered her. "What was that about mother?" she asked him.

"Yes, boy, how does that demon know your mother?" Genma asked, now recovered from acting like a frightened animal.

Ranma sighed, "She's Urd's mother, so indirectly she's my mother also. Her name is Hild." They all looked at one another. None of them knew the name, so it was obvious none of them knew Norse mythology.

"She's Kami-sama's counterpart," he said and Nabiki gasped and cringed. He knew the girl would pick up on what he said almost immediately. The girl was smart after all. The fathers and Akane just blink-blinked and looked at him waiting for him to continue.

"Her name is Hild, she's the ruler of Nifelhelm and lord of the all the demons," he continued with a sigh, rolling his eyes and twirling his finger in the air like it was a big deal. It was an Urd mannerism which survived the assimilation.

"NANI!!!!" Soun screamed before passing out. THUD! Ranma rolled his eyes at the pathetic man.

Akane and Nabiki both gasped, "You're mother is the ruler of hell?!"

"Nifelhelm," he corrected. "Hell is a Christian concept which doesn't really exist."

"Ara, wouldn't that make Ranma the Prince of Hell?" said Kasumi. It was the fat panda-man's turn to pass out.

The pigtailed martial artist face-faltered. "Kasumi, that isn't helping," he deadpanned.

**oOOOo**

Ranma knew he had to have a talk with Akane. She seemed to be over what happened that morning far too quickly. He knocked on her door and heard her response, when he said who it was he surprised by her opening the door almost immediately. Entering the room, Ranma noticed that she'd cleaned it up and there were some open books and a stack of papers on her desk. He briefly glanced at them, it was the homework that Akane had missed.

Akane closed the door behind him and went to the desk. "I went out for a walk today and ended up at Yuka's place just as she got home from school," she admitted. That explained why she wasn't at home when they got home today.

"Don't worry," she continued. "I didn't say anything about the Kami stuff, she wondered how you recovered so fast and I just explained you were always a fast healer."

Ranma asked her, "So are you going to pull a Kasumi too?" She didn't turn to look at him.

"No," she said meekly. Her shoulders shook and he heard her cry softly. He slowly went to her and pulled her into his arms. She resisted for a moment then buried her face into his chest and sobbed. He said nothing, just cooed softly in her ear and gently petted her head. It hurt to see her like this, he did forgive her and still loved her in a way. They couldn't be together, not like before, if she was going to get better.

Eventually she stopped crying and he left her go. She sat back in her chair and looked away. "Thanks, I needed that," she said.

"A part of me still loves you," he admitted. "It must have taken a lot of courage to tell our fathers what you did about the engagement."

She wiped a tear from her eye and took a tissue from a box on her desk. "When I realized the horror that I'd done I realized that I didn't deserve to be engaged to you anymore." she said almost crying.

"I know the whole engagement thing's been stressful for you," Ranma said softly. "When I came here you were being tormented by Kuno and a bunch of perverts at the school. You thought I was a girl at first, then you found out I wasn't and we were suddenly engaged. A lot of stress can make people do stupid things."

Akane replied, "Still, I should have had better control. Because of me you're the way you are now." She wiped her eyes some more.

"No, because of oyagi I'm like this," he told her. "Because of the Nekoken training Urd had to step in and save me. Only way she could do that was to merge with me, so we were already one when I cam here. Sooner or later we had to finish it or we'd both die." He didn't mention because of her they joined sooner than Urd has expected but he left that unsaid. The girl was feeling bad enough as it was.

Akane got up and went to her shelves. She looked at the framed photos. There was one of her and Ranma at a local festival. In some ways it could be called their first date, though neither of them would admit that it was. Another was taken of them not long after the cherry blossom mark incident, and there was one of her, Ranma, Shampoo and Ukyo together after the hot spring race.

"We've been through a lot," she said. "Doesn't seem like its only been a year and a half." It seemed longer than that for some reason to the young girl.

"Are you regretting your decision?" he asked her wondering if maybe she was having second thoughts about them ending the engagement. She dissuaded his fears by shaking her head. The fathers were downstairs right now scheming. They didn't know about the agreement he and Nabiki made yet.

"No," she answered picking up one of the pictures and hugging it to her chest. "The engagement is what really got to me most. It wasn't really you at all, but I took it out on you and that was wrong of me. It was just my resentment for not being able to decide for myself. My father, Kuno, the boys at school, they were all taking away my right to choose.

Ranma smiled, this was indeed progress. "So, what have you decided?" he asked, he felt he had to.

"Remember when you first came," she said. "I said "you want to be friends"." She looked over her shoulder and saw him nod.

She blushed and said, "Why I was really mad that you were a boy was because it broke my heart that you weren't a girl for real."

"Why's that?" he asked her, but he had a funny feeling he knew why. Someone was coming out of the closet.

"I … like … girls," she blushed and looked away, too embarrassed to look at him. He could see one of her ears, it was candy apple red from the intense blush that must be on her face. She herself couldn't believe she just told him her deepest, darkest secret. One she never told anyone else about except on other person, and to her surprise that other person felt the same way.

He sighed, "I had a feeling it was something like that." He laughed and scratched the back of his head.

"I mean, it explains why you always looked at me funny when I was a girl," he continued. "I always thought it was cause you were jealous of my bigger boobs."

Akane scratched her chin nervously, "Well, yeah, I was jealous." A blue-ish light reflected off the wall and she heard the sound of water. She whirled around and found herself looking at Ranma's platinum blond girl half. Her wet silk shirt stuck to her body. It was obvious she wasn't wearing a bra. Not hiding her feelings anymore, Akane couldn't help but stare and admit the girl's figure. She felt herself get moist and blushed furiously.

"So all this time what you really wanted to do was bury your face in these," Ranma said pushing her breasts together and giving them a squeeze. He saw the younger girl's eyes glaze over and a drip of blood come from her nose.

Akane shook her self out of it and looked away. "Hell yes!" she blurted out, and covered her mouth in surprise. "I mean, yeah," she corrected herself. "It also scared me, I didn't want people to think I was a freak or a pervert for feeling this way, so I hid it and the more I hid it the angrier I got." She'd been hiding her feelings and urges for so long behind a mask of anger that it felt liberating to be able express them now. But, it still worried her how others would see her.

"There ain't nothing wrong with how you feel," Ranma told her. "Heck, there are Kami who are lesbians!" Many religions said homosexuality was wrong or a "sin". Truth was "Religion" was a human concept created from one person's or a group's views which they imposed on others calling it the will of the Gods. The truth was the kami didn't care either way. If you loved someone and that someone happened to be the same sex, so what.

Heck, there was scientific proof of homosexuality among animals!

"I don't think you're a freak or a pervert," he told her.

"Thanks," she said finally turning to face her. "So, I guess our fathers are scheming about the engagement right now. Who do you think you'll be engaged to now?" She felt a little sad about the end of their engagement, but she didn't feel she deserved him anymore. He was the only boy she ever felt this way about. That would define her as bisexual in a way, but did it really count as bisexual if your feelings were only for one person?

Ranma laughed, "Already talked to Nabiki about it. We've decided to give it a try, but we haven't told our fathers yet."

Akane's eyes went wide. "Nabiki?" she gasped disbelievingly. "After all those times she's taken advantage of you?" She knew it had to be her or Kasumi. Akane was expecting Ranma to pick Kasumi as the most obvious choice. She could cook really well, was very beautiful, and unlike Nabiki never used him to make money.

Ranma shrugged making her assets bounce and causing Akane's eyes to glaze over again. "Eh, we sorta kinda worked out those issues, we've got an agreement going." Ranma told her, scratching the back of her head.

"I'm going to go back to school tomorrow," said Akane. "I've got to stop hiding here crying over something I can't undo. And, I also can't continue living wearing a mask either." She looked up at the redhead and smiled. To Ranma it was perhaps the most beautiful smile she's ever seen on the young girl's face. A few tears ran down Akane's cheeks.

"I've been hiding from who I really am," she continued, her voice cracking. "I let it bottle up inside me and fester. All because I've been afraid. Afraid of my feelings, these urges, how people would perceive me if they ever learned the truth. But, mostly I think I was afraid of letting daddy know. He's pretty traditional, I was also so afraid of disappointing him, so I pretended to be a normal straight girl."

And Ranma said, "And then you went to Furinken and met Kuno. He wouldn't take no for an answer, then the speech the baka made that started the morning fights, and then I came along." She could now fully understand why Akane was such a mess. She'd been under way more stress than Ranma had ever realized. It was a wonder something like this hadn't already happed to Kuno. The youngest Tendo had been a ticking emotional time bomb with a hair trigger. No wonder she was always so prone to quick outbursts of blind rage.

No one person was to blame for this situation. Ranma had thought it was brought on by Kuno and the Hentai Horde, but Akane's problem date back much further than that.

"How old were you when you realized you liked girls?" she asked Akane.

The taller girl thought for a moment. "I was twelve," she admitted. "In school I had a friend named Mika, her family moved away a few years ago when her father got a promotion at his job. We were really good friends."

"So, you started having feelings for Mika?" Ranma asked her.

Akane blushed and replied, "Actually, she was the one who started having feelings for me." The taller girl sat on her bed and beckoned Ranma to sit next to her.

"We were having a sleep over at her place," she explained. "Yuka and Sayuri were there too. It was night time, the other girls were asleep. I was still awake, I thought I was the only one but Mika was awake too until she crawled out from under her blankets and came over to me. She looked down at me, I could see she'd been crying in the dim light coming from the window. Then, very quietly she said "I can't hide it anymore, I'm sorry Akane-chan, I love you" and she closed her eyes and leaned down and …. kissed me … on the lips." The young girl blushed brightly for a moment.

"Wow," Ranma breathed. "Then what?"

Akane blushed again and replied, "I'm not sure what came over me. Everything I've ever been taught growing up said girls liking other girls was wrong, but her kissing me like that felt so right for some reason. I found myself returning her kiss and I put my arms around her, and pulled up down close to me." Now the girl was really blushing, her ears were candy apple red and she looked like steam was about to shoot out of them.

"And then … I still don't know what came over me," she said covering her face, embarrassed. "I put my hand down the front of her panties and put my finger in her …. oh my Kami-sama I can't believe I'm telling someone this! We … we … our friends were right there in the room sleeping, and we were right in the middle kissing and … rubbing … and …. I can't say it!" Akane flopped down on the bed and hid her face from him to hide the 3rd degree blush on her face.

Ranma's eyes bulged, "You had lesbian sex with your friends sleeping next to you guys! And, they didn't notice?" Akane didn't sit up but she did shake her head no that they didn't.

"WOW!" Ranma responded, it was the only response she could give. And Akane had been calling him a hentai all this time, but she didn't say anything about it.

"We didn't, you know ..." she sat up, stuck her tongue out and wiggled it. "Just rubbed … with our fingers." She was still blushing but at least she didn't look like she was about to burst into flames.

"... but it was still good," she admitted with a nostalgic smile.

Then, a cloud seemed to cover her face and she said, "A few days after that happened there was an uproar in the neighborhood. One of the neighbors, a young girl named Koiyuki who babysat me and my sister had decided to come out of the closet. Her parents were devastated and kicked her out of the house. Talk spread all over the neighborhood about it. Father and the other parents went on the warpath, they started asking all of us questions … like did she molested any of us when she babysat or not. Which she didn't, of course, but they didn't really listen to what we had to say. In the end Koiyuki's family had to move away. Nobody in the neighborhood would talk to them anymore and they wouldn't let their kids play with their son who was Nabiki's. I was so scared that daddy would kick me out of the house too, so I hid how I felt. It was also around the same time Mika's family moved away too, because they didn't want their daughter to live in a neighborhood where a pervert lived." A single tear fell down her cheek.

So, it was blind intolerance and prejudice that started this whole shit-storm. It finally put everything into perspective for fully assimilated goddess/martial artist. The parents overreacted, went completely overboard and nearly ruined the lives of several people for no damn good reason. One of them, the the young girl next to her, was probably hurt the most by this whole mess. Except for that poor Koiyuki, who lost her family because of prejudice. Ironically, it the man who was the most protective of Akane who had hurt her the most … her father. What a cluster-fuck!

Japan was changing and society was becoming more accepting of homosexuality. Well, the younger generation was more open-minded. The older generation wasn't, they were pretty close minded. In a few generations the more open-minded ones will be the ones in power, and the more right-wing ultra-conservatives who ran things would become a distant memory. To Ranma ultra-conservatism was a disease, nothing good ever came from it. According to the news and rumors at school the Americans were learning that lesson the hard way.

"So this whole farce is actually your father's fault," she commented still compiling all of what had been said.

Akane didn't had a retort for Ranma's comment, because she knew it was true. Ever since that day she lived a lie because she feared her father's prejudice.

"What are you going to do now?" Ranma asked her.

Akane took on a determined expression and said, "I'm not hiding behind my mask anymore. If daddy can't accept me for who I really am then its his loss. If he kicks me out of the house I can always go live with Auntie Shizumi in Osaka. She's openly lesbian, which is why daddy won't let her come to visit us … but I sneak behind his back and see her every once in a while when she's in town on business."

Ranma smiled, "Good for you, and I won't let that baka kick you out. He abandoned you girls when you needed him after your mother passed away. He abandoned you emotionally, withdrew into himself instead of trying to keep his family together. You're sisters sacrificed their childhoods to save the family. He doesn't have the right to kick you out."

"Thank you," Akane whipped a tear from her eye and hugged the smaller girl.

**oOOOo**

Sasuke made his nightly rounds in Kuno-ke, checking the traps and security alarms to make sure they were ready for the night. The family he served has a lot of enemies, and not just the ones who lived in Nerima. No, these were enemies who make people like Ranma look like saints. The Kuno clan fortune can partially be traced back to the time when they were a powerful and influential Samurai clan, but greater half of their wealth came from several enterprises. Not all of them were legal.

Leaping from the wall that surrounded the compound he alighted to the roof just above his mistresses bedroom. Every night he would check up on Mistress Kodachi to make sure she was alright. On some occasions he found her passed out from an accidental exposure to some of the exotic chemicals she worked with. Many of those being highly illegal drugs, which she made herself from the flowers in her garden. The other reason, he kept to himself. One time he looked through her bedroom window and saw something he didn't expect. Enraptured, he watched a naked Kodachi, laying on her bed masturbating while admiring a full sized picture of her Ranma-sama. He accidentally looked into his master's room while he was banging a sex doll which almost perfectly resembled the redhead Master Tatawake was obsessed with. Sasuke was still recovering from the mental scares.

This night, Sasuke heard voices coming from Kodachi's room. He didn't remember his charges having any visits tonight. Looking in he saw his mistress talking animated to a strange looking woman. She was a blond who wore a tight outfit of mostly black leather. It was quite obvious that the blond was gaijin. Her European features were unmistakable, yet she was speaking perfect Japanese.

"So, you are saying that with that I can make my Ranma-sama mine?" Kodachi asked the blond. She looked at the small bottle in the gaijin woman's hands.

Mara gestured with the bottle and said, "Oh, yes. One sip of this special potion and you will gain the power to finally overcome the influence of Tendo Akane and the pigtailed girl." She handed the small bottle over to Kodachi.

"You are giving this to me for free?" Kodachi asked, suspicious that this stranger who came out of nowhere would give her such a gift and ask for nothing in return.

Mara just smiled and replied, "My only payment is that you find the happiness you so deserve."

The blond gave Sasuke an uneasy feeling. There was something about her that didn't seem right. All of his ninja instincts were tell him something was very wrong here. Before he could act he watch as his mistress opened the bottle and drank its contents down in one gulp. He prepared to jump into the room to grab his mistress and run for it to the nearest doctor, but something stopped him. He felt it first, then saw it. A change overcame his mistress, her eyes grew crueler and more manic than usual. His instincts were screaming at him to run away, far away!

"I can feeling it," Kodachi gasped. "I can feel the power flowing through me! I can do this, I can finally rid myself of that a wretched pigtailed girl and that vile Tendo Akane!"

She narrowed her eyes. "And I know exactly how to deal with Tendo-san," she said evilly. A vile plan forming in her head. Mara smiled wickedly as she left. She'd get her revenge, and do it without breaking her promise. It was the perfect plan.

If only she had known what Kodachi were planning, and what consequences it would have.

**oOOOo**

Akane didn't reveal her coming out of the closet to her father that night. She wanted to wait for the right time to spring it on him when he was most vulnerable. That night Ranma and Nabiki headed the baka brothers off at the pass by announcing their engagement, which made them happy. Of course, they tried to summon a priest to the house almost immediately but a lightning bolt from Ranma put an end to that. The new couple made it clear that there was to be no interference in their relationship. Ranma promised pain and heaven's retribution, and Nabiki promised her own brand of punishment. Needless to say, the fathers were pissing themselves by the end of the night.

The next morning Akane did get ready for school. She walked with Ranma and Nabiki to campus and quickly went on to class to talk to her friends. Akane had gone to see Yuka yesterday. Considering what she told him, he suspected he knew why. Nabiki could tell Ranma knew something, there was enough of his old mannerisms left in him that she could tell, but when she asked he told her it wasn't his story to tell. Not yet anyway. Kuno was surprisingly absent that morning, as were a lot of the boys who were former members of the Hentai Horde. This didn't bother Ranma to much, when they were scarce around Akane it mean no stress for her. It was when he noticed two of the ex-HHers were missing from class he started to wonder what was going on. He still didn't think there was anything bad going on, it was just odd.

When it was time Akane made her way to the girl's locker room for gym. As she entered strangely the room was empty. She was certain she didn't get there late and thus missed the other girls. She had hoped that she might get to ogle them like she usually did without them noticing. Guessing that she must have got the time wrong she went to her locker and pulled it open. A plume of white smoke hit her in the face and she felt her body go limp. She was totally aware but couldn't get her body to respond. As she fell she clenched her eyelids, one of the only things she could still move, and tried to brace for the fall as best she could. Someone caught her, she felt soft hands catch her and felt her body pressed against someone with impressive breasts.

When she opened her eyes she began to panic. The girl holding her was Kuno Kodachi, and her eyes had a manic look to them. More so than they usually did, something was very wrong here.

"Wicked harridan," she spat. "Your vile scheme to defile my Ranma-sama will not succeed. Today you pay for your crimes. The punishment you will receive this day will be most fitting." The disturbed gymnast laid her on the ground and began to strip off Akane's uniform. Akane tried to resist, but she still wasn't able to move. After the last article of clothing was tossed to the side Kodachi unceremoniously picked Akane up fireman style and carried her out of the room.

Akane wasn't able to get that good a look at where they were going from the angle she was laying, but it looked like Kodachi was taking he to the supply room that attached to the locker room. The lights were off, so she wasn't able to see and wouldn't have likely seen much even if she could turned her head. Then, she was dropped to the floor. At least there was a pad that cushioned her some.

In the dim light of the room she saw Kodachi kneed down next to her and move her body around. Akane started to panic as the gymnast spread her legs wide. She pulled something out from hammer-space and Akane felt her ankles being clamped into something that kept her legs spread apart. Then Kodachi bound her hands above her head with handcuffs. These were connected to a chain, but Akane was unable to see that it was connected to a fixture on the wall. Finally, a ball gag was stuffed into her mouth and fixed into place. Akane could feel some of whatever it was that hit her start to slowly wear off, but she still couldn't move much more than one of her fingers.

Kodachi grabbed her chin and turned Akane's head so she was looking into her eyes. "Now, vile temptress," she said with a voice like venom. "You will know your place. Ranma-sama is mine! This is what happens to those who dare stand in my way!"

Akane winced as the light came on in the room. When her eyes adjusted she looked around and if she could have she would have screamed through the gag. Surrounding her, standing close to the walls of the large room were former members of the Hentai Horde. All of them were naked, and there was no mistaking the fact that they were all aroused. All had that same manic look in their eyes that seemed unnatural.

Kodachi stood and headed for the door, before closing it behind her she said, "You brought this upon yourself, you know. If only you had stepped aside like a good girl this would not be necessary." Akane tried to struggle out of her bonds, scream, anything but she was still under the sway of whatever drug Kodachi had used.

"You have two hours, make the best of it," Kodachi said the assembly of boys. "Enjoy the present I brought for you. Ohohohohohohoho!" She closed the door and continued to laugh as she left. Back in the storage room Akane tried to scream as the boys advanced on her like zombies.

On the roof, Mara looked at the event going on in a magic sphere in her hands. She had to admire this Kodachi's imagination, when she had the right motivation and a good push in the right direction she could be quite evil. Mara did promise not to "directly" hurt Akane, and she was keeping her promise. She smiled as she heard the first sounds of a boy's moaning, his body moving rhythmically between the mallet bitch's legs. A small part of her tried to warn her that this was crossing a line she shouldn't be crossing, but she ignored it and continued to watch as the boys took turns with the bound girl. She dispelled the sphere and jumped into the air with a satisfied grin on her face. She left the school behind, but deep, deep within a tiny voice inside warned her this was wrong.

Mara did not realize it at the time, but this event would have far reaching consequences for herself and Akane. She was setting off a massive firestorm, and by the time it finally died down her current self would not be able to recognize herself. Kami-sama watched these same events with sad eyes. What the Tendo girl was going through was terrible, but it all a part of the grand scheme of things. These events had to play themselves out. As horrible as they were they were necessary.

"Its has begun,"

Alarms went off in Ranma's head when Akane didn't come out for gym. Nabiki told him the girls were told to use the old girl's locker room rather than the new one in the recently built annex. The old locker room had been hastily repaired. It was still damaged from the last big fight with Happosai, thus the reason why the new annex had been built. They went to the new building but saw and heard nothing. Ranma sensed a bit of magic and realized it could be only one thing. The two raced from the annex and ran through the school trying to find Akane. They were unable to detect Akane and the boys not far away in the next room behind several layers of magical shielding. As they searched they found all of the former HH-ers were missing. Panicked, Ranma and Nabiki ran back to the locker room in the new annex. It has taken then nearly two hours to search the whole school.

In the adjoining storage room that's where they found Akane, naked and crying in a corner. The leg spreader, gag and shackles had been removed and tossed to another corner. From the smell in the room both teens knew what had happened but their minds refused to believe it. The telltale taint of demonic magic filled the air, and Ranma's rage began to build. Mara would pay for this!

"AKANE!!!!" they both cried in shock and grief as they ran to her.

Akane had been raped.

**oOOOo**

**To be continued …**

**Next time …**

The fun was over. Ranma and Nabiki's relationship begins to grow as the two struggle to help Akane overcome her ordeal. The love of her family and a special someone would help her pick up the shattered pieces of her soul. Meanwhile, Mara faces the first consequences of her actions and her own ordeal begins. It is a time of upheaval and change in Nerima as the backlash of what happened in that storage room begins to tear Furinken High School apart. For Kuno Kodachi, it is the beginning of her own private Nifelhelm.

Next time in Chapter 6 - "**Time May Heal All Wounds, but Only Love Can Heal the Soul**"

NOTES: First I want to say I'm sorry for not getting this out sooner. I had hoped to get it out much much sooner than this but time didn't permit me to do it and I was out of ideas. Damn Writer's Block!!!! We now go into a darker part of the story. Why did I do something so extreme to Akane? It wasn't to bash her. Someone wanted me to let Mara beat the crap out of her, but I'm not into character bashing and I wanted Akane to grow as a character. So, why something as extreme as Rape? Ultimately its to act as a catalyst for the changes to come later in the story. Akane is going to change, in what way you'll have to just stay tuned and this time I promise NOT to keep you all waiting as long I did before. How dark will I take it? The next chapter will be pretty dark. Akane will recovering from her ordeal and Ranma and Nabiki will be there for her. There will also be someone else, someone close to Akane who will help her heal too. This story arch will span a few chapters, but it will eventually take Akane a lot longer than 3 or 4 chapters to finally fully recover.

What about Mara? I won't say right now but she won't get away with this unpunished. I have plans for this fic and I can't reveal all of cards now can I. Just know that its going to be an interesting ride, and likely one that'll make you cry while you're smiling at the same time. And, yes to all of you begging me this will NOT be a Ranma + Akane pairing but a Ranma + Nabiki pairing. I hope you liked it and please leave constructive reviews.


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